Quick Facts
Biography
Kermit Millard Zarley, Jr. (born September 29, 1941) is an American professional golfer who played on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour. He is also an author of several books.
Biography
Zarley was born in Seattle, Washington. He graduated from the University of Houston and was a distinguished member of the golf team. He was the individual champion at the 1962 NCAA Division I Championships and also led his team to victory.
Zarley had three dozen top-10 finishes in PGA Tour events during his 18 years on Tour including three wins. Zarley had three top-10 finishes in major championships; his best was a solo 6th at the 1972 U.S. Open. Zarley won once on the Senior/Champions Tour. On both Tours, he finished second or tied for second seventeen times.
Due to his unusual name, Zarley was often called "the Pro from the Moon" or "Moon Man." It is because comedian Bob Hope once interviewed him on national television and remarked, "Kermit Zarley, with a name like that he must be the pro from the moon." In a Wayne and Shuster sketch about a golf tournament being held on the streets of Toronto, Johnny Wayne's character is named "Zarley Kermit, Jr."
In 1965, Zarley co-founded the PGA Tour Bible Study group with fellow PGA Tour players, Jim and Babe Hiskey. It still flourishes today and has proliferated throughout the world of professional golf. In the period between his careers on the PGA Tour and the Champions Tour, he authored three books on religion and world affairs. He received an honorary doctorate degree in 2001 from Chicago's North Park University, which has a lecture series named for him. Zarley lived much of his adult life in the Houston metropolitan area, but now resides in Scottsdale, Arizona.
Controversial religious writings
In The Third Day Bible Code (2006), Zarley examined the relatively frequent occurrence of "third day" in the Bible. Applying the words "with the Lord one day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like one day" (2 Peter 3:8), he offered the provocative interpretation that Jesus' expected second coming will occur during the early part of the third millennium following his departure, between the years 2070 and 2250.
The publication of his most recent book, The Restitution of Jesus Christ, was preceded by his usage of the pseudonym Servetus the Evangelical. His stated reasons for doing so were: "if my fellow Evangelicals ever knew about my christological beliefs they would not accept me as a genuine Christian and ostracize me from the Evangelical community." His book endorses a Unitarian viewpoint of christology, similar to the quasi-Unitarian position of Michael Servetus himself.
Amateur wins
- 1962 NCAA Championship, Pacific Northwest Amateur
Professional wins
PGA Tour wins
| No. | Date | Tournament | Winning score | Margin of victory | Runner-up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Jan 21, 1968 | Kaiser International Open Invitational | –15 (71-67-70-65=273) | 1 stroke |  Dave Marr |
| 2 | Jul 5, 1970 | Canadian Open | –9 (69-73-70-67=279) | 3 strokes | Gibby Gilbert |
| 3 | Jul 30, 1972 | National Team Championship (with Babe Hiskey) | –22 (67-63-66-66=262) | 3 strokes | Grier Jones & Johnny Miller |
PGA Tour playoff record (0–1)
| No. | Year | Tournament | Opponent | Result |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1976 | Florida Citrus Open | Hale Irwin | Lost to par on sixth extra hole |
Other wins
- 1964 Arizona Open
- 1984 Tallahassee Open (Tournament Players Series - precursor for Nike Tour)
Senior PGA Tour wins
- 1994 The Transamerica
- "Just in ...". Golf World. Vol. 66 no. 10. September 17, 2012. p. 15.
The victory totals for four former PGA Tour players have been increased after the tour determined they were not credited with winning the 1968 and 1972 National Team Championship ... Hiskey and Zarley now have three wins, Archer 13 and Nichols 12.
- "Zarley-Hiskey Win Team Championship". Observer–Reporter. Washington, Pennsylvania. AP. July 31, 1972. p. B-5. Retrieved October 26, 2012.
Books
- The Gospel (1987). Scripture Press. Out-of-print. German adaptation--Das Leben Jesu: Die authentische Biographie (1991). Hanssler.
- The Gospels Interwoven (1987). Scripture Press. Reprinted by Wipf & Stock (2001). ISBN 1-57910-775-3.
- Palestine Is Coming: The Revival of Ancient Philistia (1990). Hannibal Books. Re-issued by Wipf & Stock (2005). ISBN 1-55635-181-X.
- The Third Day Bible Code (2006). Synergy Books. ISBN 1-933538-43-0.
- Warrior from Heaven (2009). Synergy Books. ISBN 0-9815462-2-6.
- The Restitution of Jesus Christ (2008) [1]. Self-published. No ISBN.
- The Solving the Samaritan Riddle: Peter's Keys Explain Early Spirit Baptism (2015). Wipf & Stock. ISBN 9781498225281.