Karl dies of Pancreatic Cancer

This is the same thing that took my father in 2001.  Pancreatic cancer is supposed to be rare as cancers go but it's been in the news this year.  Steven Jobs of Apple has it and needed a transplant.  He was lucky since there are various types.  Most people have the inoperable type like Patrick Swasey.

My friend Karl found out in September 2009 a few days before our big golf tournament.  I had formed a team of an A+ player, myself a B, and Karl who was the C player.  The A player is a stud who hits the ball out of sight but can't putt.  Karl couldn't hit it out of his shadow some days, but had shot 79 a few days before.  Karl was a great putter.  He was an A putter and an F for hitting the ball.

The event was a Scramble where each player hits the same shot.  The team takes the "best" drive and then plays the hole with on ball to completion.  The team must take a minimum of 5 drives per player.  That made things interesting.

Karl was in pain most of the time.  The medications helped.  Two days before the event he had a stent placed in the tract between his liver and pancreas.  It had been blocked by the cancer and was causing his liver to shutdown.  The process is intended to allow him to live so he can be subjected to chemotherapy to kill the cancer.  The type of pancreatic cancer he was fighting was the most severe with the lowest survival rates.  In fact, he was told he had no more than 6 months to live at best.

He found out about the cancer on Friday.  That Sunday I asked him to play with us.  He said no, but called a few hours later to say ok.  On Monday he called me to talk about the cancer diagnosis and that he was withdrawing from the team because he didn't know if he could play the following weekend.  On Tuesday our A player suggested we play with him anyway since this might be Karl's last chance to play.  I called Karl that night with the offer which he accepted.  On Thursday Karl would have the stent put in.  His Doctor told him no golf for 2 weeks.  Karl explained the tournament and the Doctor said, "go for it!"  So we had a team.

On Saturday, we were 5 under, which is a disappointing score.  None of us contributed much.  Karl was normally a good putter was just a little off, which was expected.  He struggled to hit the ball, but managed to get in 5 drives by the 15th hole.  I had to get two drives in on the last 3 holes which I did on 16 and 17.

Sunday was a magical day.  Karl was first to putt in our rotation followed by me then the A player.  Karl's putter was on fire.  The first hole he drained a 15' downhill left to right break.  The next hole was a tap in birdie as our A player hit one 6" from the hole.  Par 5 number three found us putting for an eagle from 50'.  Karl bombed it in.  He managed to make several long putts, but had trouble hitting the ball.  On number 7 his tee shot went backwards a few inches!  That embarrassment didn't stop him from making the eagle putt.  Our A player eagled 14 on his own ball as both Karl and I missed a 3 foot putt.

The drama was on the par 3 15th where Karl needed one more drive and he was struggling to swing the club.  He pulled his shot towards the water and it barely stayed dry, but that was good enough.  We salvaged par.  On 16 our A player made a 40' putt from just off the green.  After this I needed to hit one more good drive which I waited to do on 17.  Again Karl made the putt for birdie.  On 18 our A player hit a great approach to 3' which Karl made.  For this round our A player putted a total of 4 times.  Karl made the rest. 

Midway through the round Karl's son Dan rode with us for a few holes.  Karl continue to play well, but the cold forced Dan to the clubhouse part way through the round.

On Sunday we were 15 under for a total of 20 under which was one shot behind the first place team.  We had low round for the day, and Karl had a great time.  

Karl never complained about the cold, or the bad drives, or the cancer.  He told me he had a great time and thanked us for asking him to play.  The thanks goes to Karl.