Erik Compton's Miraculous Run Ends

Author John Feinstein referred to Q-School as golf’s fifth major in his widely popular book Tales from Q-School.

The PGA Tour Qualifying School events are arguably the most pressure-packed tournaments in all of golf. 

A player’s future and a potential for millions of dollars in earnings are all riding upon how a player performs over the course of just 14 days. Needless to say, there were many shaky hands gripping putters around the country at the second stage of Q-School, which concluded yesterday.

However, there was one player out there who was playing against more than just the extremely intense pressure.

Erik Compton is just five months removed from his second life-saving heart transplant operation.

At the age of nine, Compton was diagnosed with cardiomyopathy, an enlarging of the heart that hinders its ability to pump blood.  Three years later, in 1992, he received his first heart transplant. 

Several years later, Compton was the top-ranked junior golfer in the country.  He attended the University of Georgia where he was an All-American and a member of the 2001 Walker Cup team.

Compton has spent most of his time on the Nationwide Tour but has qualified for two PGA Tour events over the past few years. He was also given a sponsor’s exemption to the recent Disney Children’s Miracle Network Classic, where he performed well enough to make the 36-hole cut.

Last year Compton suffered a major heart attack after a Nationwide Tour event.  

Complications from his childhood heart transplant required Compton to undergo a second heart transplant operation to save his life. In May, Compton’s second new heart was put in place during a 14-hour operation. 

Most people take years to fully recover from a surgery as major as a heart transplant, but not Compton. He was back on the golf course within months and competing in the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School just five months later.

Attending Q-School at all is a miraculous accomplishment in itself, but Compton was not there merely to provide the golfing world with a nice feel good story, he was there to play his way onto the PGA Tour. 

At the first stage of Q-School, Compton was 12 over-par after 54 holes and well outside of the top 23 spots required for advancement to the second stage.

Playing in extremely windy conditions during the final round, Compton needed a small miracle to play his way into the top-23. 

But miracles are something Compton has become accustomed to throughout his life.  Undergoing two heart transplants while still remaining one of the nation’s best golfers trumps the miracle Compton needed to advance through to the second stage of Q-School.

Compton managed to pull off yet another miracle by shooting a final round 68, which was the low score of the day and good enough to move him into a tie for 23rd, earning him a ticket to the second stage of the PGA Tour’s qualifying school. 

Last week Compton attended the second stage of Q-School at Southern Hills Plantation in his home state of Florida.

Compton began with scores of 70-70-69, which placed him two strokes within the cut line. 

After playing somewhat poorly during most of Sunday’s final round, Compton approached the par-five 16th hole, which is without question the best opportunity to record a birdie or even an eagle coming in.

Compton was right on the cut line as he approached the 16th tee. A birdie would have given him a great opportunity to advance and an eagle would have likely ensured his advancement to the final stage of Q-School.

Compton reached the par-five 16th in two and decided to go for the knockout punch by attempting to sink his eagle putt.

Perhaps it was nerves; it certainly would not be the first time nerves came into play at Q-School. Or perhaps it was the excitement Compton felt from being on the brink of continuing his miraclulous run to the final stage of Q-School.

Whatever the reason, Compton blew his eagle putt several feet past the hole and then missed his par putt, coming back to record a par-five.

Compton went on to par the 17th and 18th, which left him an agonizing one stroke outside of the cutoff point for the final stage of the PGA Tour’s Qualifying School.

Surely Erik Compton was incredibly disappointed after his elimination from Q-School. However, in light of everything he has been through over the past six months and the early stages of his young life, not rolling a little white ball into a cup might seem altogether trivial, even if not at this very moment.  

If resolve and determination, not to mention a pure natural talent for the game, are anything to go by, we are likely to see Erik Compton walking the fairways of the PGA Tour in the coming years.