OF ALL the golfers taking part in Florida at the Honda Classic today, only one was lying in a hospital bed with staples in his chest just ten months ago. In spite of twice undergoing heart transplant surgery in his young life, Erik Compton still dreams of making his mark as a professional.
When the first of the 29-year-old's three hearts failed as a boy, he was only 12 and the youngest ever transplant patient at the Miami hospital which performed the operation. His second heart, which came from a teenage girl who was killed by a drunk
driver, served him pretty well for 15 years. He wrote regularly to the girl's grandmother, never forgetting the debt he owed.
A talented enough golfer to represent the US against Great Britain & Ireland in the 2001 Walker Cup match, Compton spent much of his early professional career on the Nationwide Tour. Then he suffered a massive heart attack in the autumn of 2007, 48 hours after missing the cut at an event in Idaho. The duck hook which cost him a place among the qualifiers that weekend also saved his life.
The surgeons kept Compton alive. Last March he had a defibrillator put in his weakened heart which kept him going until he underwent a second transplant in May. This time his heart came from a volleyball player who was killed in a motorbike crash.
Remarkably, only six months later, Compton was at US Tour School trying to win his PGA card for 2009. Handed a special dispensation to ride a golf buggy for six months until his strength returned, he had made the cut at the Disney tournament in November. Compton eventually missed out by a single shot on reaching the second stage of the Tour's qualifying process.
Compton is relying on sponsors' invitations to make a living this year. Last month this former winner of the King Hassan Trophy in Morocco accepted the chance to play on the European Tour at the Desert Classic in Dubai. Although he missed the cut, he walked 36 holes for the first time with his third heart.
Tomorrow he tees up at the Honda Classic, the first leg of the Florida swing in Palm Beach, ambitious to walk all 72 holes. Although he's still eligible to use a buggy, Compton plans to walk if he can. On Monday he played in a pro-am but needed to rest and won't return to PGA National until today. "At some point," he said, "you've got to give it a try."
Competing as a father for the first time after the birth last month of his daughter, Petra, Compton said: "Whatever happens to me, she's going to eventually know my story and how she was brought into this world with a story. I mean, I never, ever thought I'd be a father. I never even thought I'd make it to college. As far as I've made it, to look at her and to know I had a little part in it."
Compton is a contemporary of outstanding golfers of the calibre of Sergio Garcia and Camilo Villegas. He's no longer a power player to rank alongside the Spaniard and the Colombian, but if he can walk off the course this evening, he'll feel a sense of achievement every bit as intense as the golfer who posts the day's low score.
"It's been a goal of mine to get back and play and walk," he admitted. "It's going to be a good week. With the birth of our daughter, it's been a pretty tiring week, but hopefully somewhere in the mix I can play a little golf.
"For me to be able to walk four days is part of a separate goal. For me, being able to walk four days and play coming down Sunday is a huge accomplishment."
Compton isn't so much jousting this week with players of the calibre of Garcia, Villegas, Justin Rose, Ernie Els and Rory McIlroy at the Honda as he is with his own hopes and dreams. "I'm trying to do something nobody in the world's ever done, so I'm competing a lot against myself," he said.
"My desire is to walk and to play, to be normal. I have the talent; it's obvious the health has been a huge problem. I just think it'll continue to get better in the next few years."
Compton has already been offered and accepted an invitation from Arnold Palmer to play at Bay Hill later this month. His story of fortitude and courage, understandably, has received widespread coverage in the US where he'll be accept the American Golf Writers Association Ben Hogan award, presented to a player who remains active in the game despite a physical handicap or serious illness, before the Masters next month.
He knows he'll always be the player galleries look at differently. But Compton is more at ease with himself these days, no longer railing against the fates which made him the golfer with three hearts.
