Nicole Jeray was diagnosed with narcolepsy in 1996, but she has persisted since her 1994 rookie season on the L.P.G.A. Tour, reports the New York Times.
“I didn’t expect to finish second, but I wanted to play decent golf because I’ve been playing well all year,” said Jeray, who has three wins in her Symetra Tour career.
But she has not always been able to meet her expectations because of the debilitating effects of narcolepsy. She has also wrestled with associated ailments: temporary sleep paralysis, in which she can hear and see what is going on around her but cannot awaken, and cataplexy, a weakness and loss of motor control often triggered by strong emotion, especially laughter.
“If she gets too jacked up, she falls asleep,” said her boyfriend, Jody Keepers, who was her caddie at Q-School. “She has to stay completely level emotionally for five hours just to play a tournament, which means she can’t get too excited about birdies or mad about bogeys.”
