By Ken Klavon, USGA

Cherry Hills Village, Colo. – As a young girl growing up in the former Communistic Czechoslovakia, Jana Peterkova can’t remember much. She can recall people being limited in where they could travel, her family trying to flee the regime without having visas, and dreaming about one day playing on the LPGA Tour.

She’s not quite there yet, but hers is an intriguing story that could one day turn into a Hollywood script.

Making her first start in a U.S. Women’s Open this week, the 25-year-old Futures Tour player is holding firm in her goal to earn a full-time exemption. If she does get it, no doubt it will be worth the topsy-turvy life she’s endured.

"This is one of my dreams, to play with all these girls," she said Wednesday while scanning the driving range at Cherry Hills Country Club.

Peterkova grew up in Domazlice, a little town of 11,500 people in Western Bohemia that contains three border crossings into Germany. It’s about two hours to Prague. Because of Communism, the entire country had only three golf courses. About the time she was 10, and because her father Jaroslav was a golf pro, she had the luxury of being able to learn the game. She immediately fell in love.

It was about this time that the Soviet Union began to crumble. When the Berlin Wall fell, so too did Czechoslovakia’s oppression. A short time later the country split into what is now known as the Czech Republic, which is where Peterkova’s family lived, and Slovakia.

Prior to the regime change, the Peterkova’s lived in fear of the Marxist ruling body. Her parents sensed a revolution was near, but left nothing to chance. They packed up what they could, readied older brother Martin and Jana for the journey, and fled to Australia via Germany and Malaysia. It took three days. It was not without a close call. While making their way through Germany, Peterkova’s dad had been detained briefly by German police.

"I totally relied on my dad," said Peterkova when asked if she was scared. "I trusted my dad. It wasn’t until someone from the police office took him away somewhere in Germany. He was nervous."

And what if they were caught?

"Probably prison for parents," said Peterkova in her thick Bohemian accent.

Jaroslav was subsequently released and the family stayed in Australia for a couple months before returning after the revolution. That’s when Peterkova and her brother, three years older, got serious about golf. That’s also when Peterkova set her sights on the LPGA Tour. She watched it on TV via satellite.

"I think my dad put the thought in my head one day, ‘I should be here one day,’" she said.

Then came near tragedy. While en route to the Junior European Championships in Belgium her driver struck a concrete divider in the road, tossing Peterkova through one of the vehicle’s shattered windows. She suffered pelvic and spinal injuries. Her wounds were so gruesome that doctors feared she’d never be able to walk again. She spent two months in the hospital, with Peterkova demonstrating on the range how she laid in traction on her back.

"I kind of had to learn how to walk all over again. It was very painful. Four to five months," adding poignantly that she didn’t miss any golf since the Belgium tournament was at the tail end of the season.

Once recovered, Peterkova concentrated on going to college in the U.S. It would be one more step toward the LPGA. Her brother had been attending Florida Southern, playing golf for the Division II college, and also lobbying women’s coach Robbie Davis on her behalf.

In January 2001 Peterkova accepted a scholarship and joined the team mid-season. She qualified for her first tournament, making quite an impression, recalled one teammate.

"I thought after her first tournament, ‘OK, she’s going to take a spot,’" said Beth Ann Baldry, now a Golfweek assistant editor.

To better acclimate herself, Peterkova lived off-campus with her brother. She was a voracious reader, keeping an English dictionary within reach. She was also a talented artist, like her mother, Vlasta.

Her practice habits stood out.

"I remember Robbie said that she was the only player he ever coached whose hands bled from hitting so many balls," said Baldry, a teammate with Peterkova on the 2001 national championship squad.

She also ran all the time, which struck the team as funny.

"You couldn’t get the rest of the team to run around the block," said Baldry dryly.

Peterkova made her mark, playing on two of the three consecutive national title teams (2001-02). The awards rolled in, the highest accomplishment being a two-time winner of the NCAA Division II Player of the Year Award. She turned pro in 2002.

While attempting to get her card for the Futures Tour, Peterkova had to sweat out a nine-player-for-four-spots playoff. She replayed the 18th hole four times before gaining a place on the tour, where she’s toiled the last three years.

Of course, an untimely disruption in 2003 caused her to miss the start of the season. Peterkova returned to the Czech Republic, as she does once a year, to visit her family. Yet as she tried making her way back to the U.S., an Immigration and Naturalization Service (INS) officer in Detroit stopped her. The INS detained and interrogated her for four hours, ultimately tearing up her visa when she tried to explain she was a professional golfer making a living in the U.S. Her problem was that she had only a six-month temporary visa while a professional-athlete visa was being processed.

"The guy was in a bad mood and wanted to send me home," said Peterkova. She tried obtaining the proper visa again and, like before, was sent home. For six months she waited, starting to run out of money.

"I had to find a job because I was desperate," she said, adding that no one would hire her because they knew she’d be leaving. A fast food restaurant finally offered her a job.

In the meantime dreary weather conditions forced her to hit balls indoors when she could. The Czech Republic Golf Federation intervened, contacting particularly the LPGA and USGA. An attorney was hired too.

"Something arrived on my desk that asked if we could somehow assist and help with some of the problems," said LPGA Commissioner Ty Votaw. The LPGA was happy to help, he said.

USGA executive director David Fay echoed that statement, saying that the Association will assist in such matters if asked and depending on the circumstance.

Peterkova was overtly thankful on the range for all the help. Turning her attention to this week, she laughed, expressing most of her concerns about the tough course layout. Or more specifically, the rough.

"Oh my God, I don’t want to break my arms," she said.

For now, this week anyway, she’ll keep going forward. The past can’t be erased, but it won’t soon be forgotten. If she makes the cut her parents will come to the U.S. for the first time to watch her play, something that would make her proud and giddy.

That, in itself, is a just reward for a life that has bordered on the melancholy. If one day she is to succeed in getting her LPGA card, it’s meant to be, she said.

The circle will be complete.

"I just feel God is looking after me," she said. "My guardian angel is watching out."

Ken Klavon is the Web Editor for the USGA. E-mail him with comments or questions at kklavon@usga.org.