GILBERT, Ariz. — Bailey Tardy jumped out of an airplane on Monday. Mind you, she was attached to a parachute, but as far as pre-tournament preparation for this week’s Ford Championship presented by KCC goes, Tardy definitely wins most interesting.
It was the 27-year-old’s second time skydiving in the Phoenix area, but it was the first jump for her caddie David Kelley, who has been on her bag since the 2023 ShopRite LPGA Classic presented by Acer, another new experience this season for the player-caddie duo, who picked up their first victory together in March at the Blue Bay LPGA.
“My caddie and I were just talking about skydiving one day, and I just said, I know some people in Phoenix. I went a couple of years ago in Phoenix and was like, I think it’d be fun to go down there,” said the season’s first Rolex First-Time Winner. “Sent a message out, and Monday was pretty much the only day we could do it, and they worked with us. We went and jumped out, I think 15,000 feet yesterday, and it was beautiful. It was so much fun. We had a blast.”
Tardy is making her fourth start of the season this week and will be looking to bounce back from a missed cut at last week’s FIR HILLS SERI PAK Championship. And while some of her fellow players might be thinking she’s crazy for jumping out of an airplane the week of an LPGA Tour tournament, Tardy saw it as a unique opportunity to do something off the golf course that she’ll remember for the rest of her life.
“I think people were just saying like, ‘You’re crazy. Why would you jump out of a perfectly good airplane?’, which is a very easy, logical question. But it was fun,” chuckled Tardy. “There’s so much to do off the golf course, and I feel like too many people spend a lot of time at the golf during tournament weeks. You gotta do things that make you smile and that make you happy out here, so that’s what we did.”
But there’s one question that begs to be asked: what’s more nerve-wracking – jumping out of an airplane or trying to win a professional golf tournament? It depends, says Tardy.
“I was really nervous going up there, but then once you jump out, it’s like all your nerves go away. But it’s a pretty big buildup,” Tardy explained. “Golf, I feel like your nerves last a lot longer. It was two minutes of being nervous skydiving, and then you’re having fun. It was a blast. I’d do it again.”
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