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 The 2007 RE/MAX Women's World Long Drive Champion shows you how to hit the long ball. The best way Sheila Kelliher can summarize her life is that it "reads like Forrest Gump." Kelliher is a firefighter and amateur bodybuilder who used to be a personal trainer, bartender, construction worker and substitute teacher, among other things. Her journey has taken some interesting twists and turns, but don't expect to see the Quartz Hill resident sitting on a bench and engaging random folks with a box of chocolates any time soon. Kelliher, 44, has a vibrant personality, but her best conversation starter is when she tees it up at a course or range and begins launching balls more than 300 yards. "She's one of the funniest and wittiest people I know, but deep down she's one of the hardest workers in the sport of long drive," said Horsepower Golf owner and former senior long drive champion Pat Dempsey, who assembled the driver Kelliher used to win last year's RE/MAX Women's World Long Drive title. "She's an athlete. She's going to push it as hard as she can." Though she has reached the pinnacle of one of golf's most competitive environments, Kelliher's ascent was jumpstarted by her decision to abandon professional golf 21 years ago. Kelliher played multiple sports while growing up in Omaha, Neb. Her dad introduced her to the game when she was 7, and sibling rivalry quickly became her motivation. "My brothers could always hit the ball a long way, so I would always try to keep up with them," Kelliher said. "I did that with all sports, so I didn't think it was anything different. Why wouldn't I be able to hit the ball like they hit it?" Her powerful game flourished, and she was a successful high school golfer. College was the next logical step, but a stint on the deep Oklahoma State women's squad didn't lead to many tournament appearances. Since her family had recently relocated to Texas, she transferred to Texas A&M for in-state tuition and another opportunity to develop her competitive golf skills. Her move, however, hit some bumps in the road. "I wasn't too successful in college because it was all about surviving and learning how to live life. I had a lot of maturing to do," Kelliher said. "I think I was just so naïve. I had no support system." Kelliher turned pro after college and played some events on the Futures and Players West tours. But at 23, she was already fed up with the grind. "Money was a struggle. When you don't know where your next meal's coming from, it makes it hard," Kelliher said. "I was just tired of saying I was a golfer. I remember having the revelation, 'You're not going to be any type of anything until you find out who you are.' That was kind of my breaking point." Her breaking point became a breakthrough. Like golf, fitness had been a driving force in Kelliher's life, and with chiseled women such as Cory Everson gaining notoriety on the bodybuilding scene in the 1980s, that's where she saw herself. "I remember seeing pictures of that and deciding I was going to do that. That's what I wanted to look like," Kelliher said. "I told my parents I was moving to Southern California to be a bodybuilder. I had one suitcase, and that was it." Kelliher moved to Santa Ana, where she learned the ropes on the state's amateur body building circuit and dabbled in other professions to make ends meet. In the late 1990s, one of her intermediate employment stops presented an intriguing networking opportunity. "A good friend of mine and his buddy, both firefighters, would come into the restaurant I bartended at," Kelliher said. "I heard them talk about their job and I was like, 'That sounds like so much fun, I think I could be really good at that.'" She was right. She passed the written test, then had to wait three years for Los Angeles County to administer the next physical agility test for prospective firefighters. Still in superb shape, she passed on her first attempt and embarked on her new career. "I love the idea of helping," Kelliher said. "I'm obviously not an office person, and I never have been. I've always been very strong and not afraid of much. I've hung out with men all my life, so I figured I could get along in the firehouse without much of a problem. I thought it would be a lot of fun, and I was right." Though her professional dreams were over, Kelliher still loved golf and began devoting more of her leisure time to the links. After watching the RE/MAX World Long Drive Championships on ESPN in 2003, she decided to become a competitive long driver on the side. "I was like, 'Hey, I could always hit the ball a long way. This looks like it could be fun,'" she said. Kelliher certainly had fun at last year's championship. She qualified for the final round in Mesquite, Nev., for the first time in 2007 and faced long-hitting Lana Lawless in the semifinals. On her last of six attempts, Lawless smacked one 312 yards to put the pressure on Kelliher, who had to dig deep to positively channel all that adrenaline to outdo her opponent. "I just dropped down and did some push-ups," she recalled. "That's a fun thing I do sometimes. It was my natural reaction." The result? A 313-yard drive that earned Kelliher a trip to the finals against defending champion Phillis Meti. Meti became the event's youngest winner in 2006 at 19 years old, and the New Zealander seemed poised to repeat after advancing with a 338-yard poke in the other semifinal match. Kelliher came close to letting her do just that. She hit her first three drives well but out of play, and Meti posted a drive of 318 yards to again put Kelliher in a precarious position. "I had one ball left and 20 seconds on the clock. I told myself to just take a little bit bigger turn, and be patient. I hit my best shot of the tournament on that last ball," Kelliher said of her 329-yard drive that earned her the championship. Considering Kelliher's journey and Meti's credentials, the victory was a Cinderella story. "Everybody thought Phillis was untouchable. I don't think there were many people in the stands who were giving Sheila a chance in the final pair," said Long Drivers of America CEO and president Art Sellinger. "Sheila hit the best shot she's ever hit in her life. It put Phillis back in a corner she had never been." Kelliher's feat was remarkable for another reason, too. The day before the event in late October, wildfires began ravaging parts of Los Angeles County. Kelliher was driving to Nevada when she heard the news, and her station called to tell her she was on telephone standby. If her services were needed, she'd hear about it. She didn't get the call, but her mind was with her peers. "When something major like that happens, you want to be on that engine going that way, because you want to help. That's what you signed up for," she said. "I didn't get to fight a fire, but I got to do all of the grunt work when I got back. So I still got to contribute." After years of searching, Kelliher has found a career combination that works for her, and the firefighter has parlayed her prodigious drives and outgoing personality into a new role as a speaker and entertainer at golf course outings across the country. If you were to put Kelliher's résumé next to Forrest Gump's, a pair of eclectic job listings would shine through, but the most common thread wouldn't be as prevalent: Each worked hard and never stopped believing in a dream. "I started off with not a lot as a means to make things happen," Kelliher said. "I just believed, and I knew that somehow, some way, golf and fitness would come together in my life. And I never gave up on it." |
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