If you get the chance to follow any golfer this weekend, take the time to watch Erik Compton.
Not because he’s running away with the Frys.com Open — he was three over through 13 — but because he shouldn’t be playing on the TOUR.
Compton was awarded the inaugural PGA TOUR Courage Award because he completed his second year after receiving two heart transplants.
“Erik’s story is a remarkable one in the fact he has overcome extraordinary odds to not only survive, but thrive,” said Commissioner Tim Fichem in a release after speaking at the Frys.com Open.
When Compton was 9, he was diagnosed with viral cardiomyopathy, which forced him to receive his first transplant at the age of 12 in 1992. As part of his rehab, according to the release, he started playing golf.
“I actually walked around the block and had a moment to myself,” Compton said during a conference before he played. “I was very emotional about it, because I feel like this is what I worked basically my whole life to basically receive status back on the PGA TOUR, but to be acknowledge by the players and also by the board.”
Juxtapositions among the caddies
Moving on from the heart warming to the more joyful and we find Patrick Reed and his wife/caddy Justine.
Justine at just 5-foot-1 is a trooper carrying her husband’s golf bag. They are a tandem that share a bond that makes the golfer and caddy relationship work.
Last August, they became the first husband and wife team to win on the TOUR.
But when Patrick was grouped with Charlie Beljan, it provided one of the great juxtapositions of the day: Justine at 5-1 and Beljan’s caddy towering at well over 6 feet.
Beljan himself is listed at 6-foot-4.
What you will see on Instagram
If you check out our Instagram page, you will get a few glimpses at some of the sights we’re seeing while out and about.
There you will see one of the best views on the course at hole 17. Oddly, it is also the beer hole — if a group records a birdie, beer is half off for 10 minutes. It features a water hazard and plenty of very social birds just chatting about what birds chat about. If you look to the right from the beer stage, you see the vineyards of Clos LaChance Winery.
Earlier this morning, the green was very welcoming, with four-straight groups recording a birdie. This afternoon, birdies are a little scarcer.
But the photo that is a must see, is a man getting a quick nap near the 18 tee box.
It’s one of the many behind-the-scenes shots we get you from all games from around the South Valley.
Follow along @SoValleySports.
