After a rocky 2006, Mayfair's life is back on track  PGATOUR.com Senior Correspondent SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. -- If variety is the spice of life, then perspective is a strong cup of coffee, black, that is forced down the gullet and makes you choke on the reality that has been right there in front of you all the time. No one wants perspective or thinks they need it ... but look out stomach, here it comes.  Things are looking up for Billy Mayfair after a rough 2006. (Feldman/WireImage)
Billy Mayfair found that out last year after the Buick Open in Flint, Mich., when a doctor confirmed what Mayfair had feared after a self-examination: he had testicular cancer. Immediate surgery was necessary, but he managed to mend sufficiently in time to compete -- and even make the cut -- in the PGA Championship at Medinah Country Club, near Chicago. While weathering the additional strain of a divorce at the same time he was trying to play in a major championship with little energy or confidence, Mayfair was struck by another unpleasant jolt. On the Friday night of the PGA, after somehow earning his way into the weekend on guts and grit, Mayfair learned that his mother, Winona, had suffered a stroke and a heart attack. Coffee. Black. "One minute I go from worrying about making six-foot putts to worrying about if I'm going to watch my son go to college," Mayfair muses. "It changes your whole perspective on life. To come back on and play on the TOUR and kind of get my life back to normal, I've to adjust a lot of things. It's been hard, but you just take it one day at a time." Thursday was a day much easier to take. Competing almost literally in his backyard at the TPC Scottsdale -- his house is 150 yards from the clubhouse -- Mayfair fired an opening 5-under-par 66, his lowest round of the year by three strokes and his best chance to make a cut and start picking up some FedExCup points. "I've had a rough last three weeks on TOUR," Mayfair, a five-time winner whose last victory was in 1998, said. But the last six month have been even tougher. Fortunately, sunlight has begun to finally creep back into the picture. His mother's health is improving, though he's sad that she is not well enough to join his hometown gallery. His own physical condition is on the upswing. He worked out hard in the off-season, building up endurance, shaving 13 pounds off his 40-year-old body and strengthening his sore back. He still isn't running on all cylinders, what with 18 radiation treatments under his belt in the final two months of 2006, but at least he's able to play golf. Golf has been his psychological oasis through some dark days. The scores weren't nearly as important as the opportunity to go through the process of posting them. "He's a great story," said fellow cancer survivor Paul Azinger, who shot 65 Thursday, one off the leaders. "Didn't he win Comeback Player of the Year a couple of years ago? If he didn't he should have."
For the record, Mayfair didn't, but he'd certainly be a popular choice with his peers. "A lot of crazy things happened to me last year, but I think once I got on the golf course and once I got inside the ropes, I was in my sanctuary," said Mayfair, who had two third-place finishes last year and finished a solid 65th on the PGA TOUR money list. "I knew the phone was turned off and not one could touch me or talk to me. I looked forward to coming to the golf course." He enjoyed his time Thursday, converting seven birdies against two bogeys. Four birdies in a row starting at the third got him going as he sank putts ranging from 8 to 20 feet. His steady ball striking resulted in hitting 12 fairways and 16 of 18 greens in regulation, which didn't put too much stress on the proceedings. "It's nice to play well close to home," he said, smiling. Of course, it's just nice to be playing at all. That's what perspective does to a guy. Mayfair didn't need an eye-opener to know he should appreciate the good things in his life. Likewise, his illness didn't compel him to wallow in any self-pity. "I never used the why-me, because when you have cancer you go into the hospital and you see the next person sitting next to you, and he's probably worse off than you are, so you should never say that," he said. "I never used it as an excuse or said poor me or anything like that." Instead, he is making the most of every day. "I've got a new lease on life," he said. "It's that simple." Copyright 2007 PGATOUR.com. All rights reserved. |
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