Even with her recent success on the LPGA Tour, this year’s Safeway Classic Champion Pat Hurst still manages to balance a full-time career with a full-time family.

Just a few months ago, not too many people knew the name Pat Hurst. Of course, those that follow women’s professional golf have seen the name pop up here and there on various LPGA Tour events, but “Pat Hurst” hasn’t exactly secured a permanent spot on the list of LPGA all-stars. Some people probably don’t even recognize the name outside of a vague reference to Patty Hearst, the once kidnapped daughter of well-known publisher William Randolph Hearst.

But unlike Patty Hearst, Pat Hurst could care less about getting her 15 minutes of fame. Despite being a successful member of the LPGA, the recent champion of the Pepsi Safeway Classic says she’d rather play the game sans media attention at all.

“I do enjoy playing golf in front of people,” Hurst explains. “And I do enjoy playing the talent that we have out here, but I don’t like the limelight as much as some of the other people do.”

Hurst’s aversion to fame, however, hasn’t hurt her career. If anything, it might have helped a little. Throughout the last two decades, Hurst has earned several event titles, including one major in 1998, the Kraft Nabisco Championship. That same year Hurst also crossed the million-dollar mark in total tour earnings, something that only a fraction of female players have ever achieved in one season.

One thing Hurst does have in common with many female professional golfers is a superhuman knack for balance: She not only juggles a great drive with a finely tuned short game, but she also runs a full-time family, taking on the role of loving wife and caring mother.

“I’ve been married since 1995, going on 11 years,” Hurst says proudly. “We’ve got two kids, the first one is a boy, Jackson Jeffery, he’s 7, and Reilly Ann, she’s a girl and she’s 4.”

Hurst hasn’t just balanced the two lifestyles, she has managed to merge them in a way that works, leaving time for both family dinners and 36 holes all in one day.

“I really love being a mom, and being able to juggle my career and motherhood is something that I’ve always wanted.To be able to do them both, that’s just like a dream come true for me.”

But Hurst hardly does it alone. Husband Jeff Heitt is more than just a loving father and Hurst’s confidant. They met in her hometown, in the San Francisco Bay area, while he was working at a golf course. Hurst practiced at the course and found herself going more and more often.

“I would come and hit balls; he would close, they had a night range, and we would hang out. He was part of the group. We just started to date that way, and I just fell in love.”

The couple married in October of 1995, and Hurst says Jeff has been more than supportive of her career ever since. He even caddied for her during Hurst’s first three years on tour and now works for Ping as a tour representative.

“He comes to every tournament, so it’s kind of nice that we can have our family out here,” she says. “I’ve been very fortunate to have my husband out here. That’s helped me out a lot.”

Her ability to balance a hefty daily routine has also helped. She says that time management plays a crucial role in finding equilibrium, and time has become a lot more about quality rather than quantity.

“Before I used to come out and just be out here for six, seven hours no problem. Now I’m five or six hours, and I get the same amount of work done. I know I don’t have as much time to chit chat out there, and I need to focus on what I need to focus on, but by doing that, I know I have time to do the family thing. Once you learn how to manage your time better it makes it so much easier.”

But even the best time managers hit unexpected roadblocks now and then. And while winning an event is anything but a roadblock, a hot streak can often bring on extra attention, something that Hurst would rather not have.

Just a few months ago near the end of July, Hurst stepped onto the 18th green at Newport Country Club for her final putt of the U.S. Women’s Open Championship. Her successful 4-footer on that final green wouldn’t land her a championship title, but it would throw her into the professional golf spotlight—something that Hurst wasn’t all that used to.

As she gently tapped in her ball, dozens of cameras sprang into action to capture the moment. The ball clanked at the bottom of the hole, and just like that Pat Hurst was tied with Annika Sorenstam for the lead at even par 284.

While it might have seemed like the California native rose out of obscurity to tie the leader, Hurst’s final putt actually marked the third time she had forced a playoff against Sorenstam. The first time was in 1997 when Hurst settled for second place after losing to Sorenstam in a playoff at the ITT LPGA Tour Championship. Three years later at the Welch’s/Circle K Championship, Hurst would again fall to the No. 1 women’s player in a playoff for first place, leaving Hurst with yet another second-place finish.

Needless to say, this wasn’t a first—Hurst had been in this position before. With all her close calls and encounters with center stage, Hurst has always managed to stay grounded and hide her distaste for media attention. She politely answers questions when she has to and gives a modest wave to the flashing cameras. What keeps her grounded, Hurst says, is knowing that in just a few days the frenzy will all blow over, and she can go back to just being a mom who happens to be really good at golf.

“Personality wise, I’m more of the inverted kind,” Hurst explains. “I’m kind of quiet. It might not seem like that outside looking in, but I really like to keep more to myself.”

Although she isn’t too keen on the media aspect of professional golf, Hurst has never shied away from professional-grade competition. Before there were the interviews and million-dollar chip-ins, Hurst’s biggest golf challenge was out-putting her mother and out-driving her stepfather. While both her parents played the game, it was her stepfather, Frank Bundt, who really got Hurst interested.

“He used to play almost every day,” Hurst recalls. “I used to go out with him and ride in the golf cart. He would let me drive, and I just loved it. It’s a lot of fun when you’re 11 and can just drive around looking for golf balls.”
Hurst’s mother, Kiyoko Bundt, moved to the United States from Japan when she married Hurst’s biological father, who passed away when Hurst was 5 years old. Hurst says she has always revered her mother for being the pillar for the family.

“Mom was very strong for us, and that carried over to my brother and my personalities.”She says her mother played golf on and off when Hurst was growing up and has maintained a steady game since then.

“She was always a really good putter—it’s probably in the genes, I don’t know—but like I said, she’s always been really good at that so I think it’s helped.”

Hurst enjoyed the game enough to stick with it up through college. She played on the San Jose State University team in Northern California, winning the team NCAA Championship as well as an individual crown in 1989.

Ten years later, after turning professional in 1995, Hurst took her first extended break from golf. She spent four months away from the game to give birth to son Jackson Jeffrey. Just a few months later, in only her second event after giving birth, Hurst shot a low 64 in the opening round of the Oldsmobile Classic, an event she won just two years earlier.

In 2001, Hurst proved a second time that pregnancy doesn’t have to impede her game. Hurst planned on taking the remainder of the 2001 season off after the Williams Championship in September, but decided she felt healthy enough to play in the Tyco/ADT Championship at seven-months pregnant. The following year in January of 2002, she gave birth to her daughter, Reilly Ann, then went on to earn three top-10 finishes and play on the victorious U.S. Solheim Cup Team.

“It’s just a matter of finishing,” Hurst commented after the second round of the Safeway Classic, an event that she would go on to win. “But, like I said, I’ve been playing good, hitting the ball well, and the putting is coming around.”

With her golf game on the uprise, and her family by her side, Pat Hurst has proved that with just the right balance, you really can do it all.

“You can do whatever you want as long as you put your mind to it. You just got to take time—and you can achieve what you want to achieve.”