![]() ![]() On Monday, it was confirmed that Martin Kaymer had risen from 28th to 11th. When Scott competed, it was something of a mess to decipher what he, Henrik Stenson and Bubba Watson had to do between them to topple Tiger Woods from the ranking summit. Adam Scott could have risen to No1 in the world without competing in the Players Championship. This year, though, has already thrown up some uncomfortable anomalies. Not only is there actually no perfect system, but other sports – such as football – have a farcical format of their own. It seems harsh to criticise the formula that dictates world ranking positions. There can be no doubt the tournament would be a better place for any appearance from golf’s most remarkable modern-day competitor. Regardless of who finishes second in the second major of the year, that seems a highly curious circumstance.Ĭompton could still make it to Royal Liverpool via the upcoming Quicken Loans, Greenbrier and John Deere events on the PGA Tour. You have to enjoy your life.”īizarrely, Compton’s Pinehurst heroics weren’t sufficient to win him a place at the Open Championship. It is easier going through life not knowing. “Whether I have 15 minutes to make it to the hospital or not I am not going to sit here and dwell how much time I have left. It seems cruel to ask Compton how long he may live. He declines: “I don’t want anyone to think I have an advantage on them.” He also has medical permission to use a golf cart in professional events. Compton has three top-10 finishes in that spell, with 14 cuts out of a possible 20 made. Still, there is the consolation of more than $1.5m banked already this season. Had he won at Pinehurst, we may well have witnessed the greatest sporting story of all time. This would be seriously eye-catching stuff in any walk of life but for Compton to emerge to the extent that he can finish second in a major championship is incomparable. In 2010, Compton competed in his first major. I was like: ‘Get me out of here.’ I was excited when they gave me the call, when I woke up from the surgery I thought: ‘What did I put myself through?’ I had 17 test tubes in my body.’” I was coughing up blood from the heart not working. “I was tired of sitting in a chair and not being able to breathe at night. I thought: ‘Hey, I am going to be gone anyways, I just won’t know the difference.’ “I was prepared if I was going to die on the table. “I knew it was my last resort,” Compton said. Not, however, without serious short-term pain. I grabbed somebody and said: ‘I am going to die here, you need to get me in.’ They carried me into the emergency room and that is when the doctors thought I didn’t have much of a chance. “That is when I started coughing up blood right there at the front of the hospital room. Then I went back to the golf course and thought: ‘Something is not right.’ I remember leaning over and I then drove myself to the hospital. “The next day I took my bike out, I had two flat tyres so I walked it all the way back about 10 miles. “I came home, took the canoe out and I could feel I had some pain in my back. “I had just missed a cut and was fed up and wanted to come home and fish,” he remembered. Amazing in itself, without what else came in between: six years ago, Compton was consigned to the operating table once again. The idea of having open heart surgery was more scary than the life-threatening deal of it.”įast forward to Sunday and Compton is one of only three players under par at one of golf’s most prominent events. I think it was hard as a kid because any kind of surgery as a 12-year-old, you are freaking out. He added: “When I was in Jackson I could hear the helicopter land. They said four-five years and then they would revisit it again.” “When somebody tells you they are going to take your heart out and put a new one in, the long-term prognosis wasn’t very good. The things that happened in 1992 were the beginning of it all and it was almost a case of becoming a man at 12 years old. “As a kid I was conscious they were going to open my chest and I was on my way to Jackson Memorial hospital with my dad,” he explained. Compton’s recollections of the first of those operations are still vivid. ![]()
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