Golfing For A Cure

As a golf instructor, I usually bond with people over golf. But sixteen years ago, I bonded with a special lady over something entirely different: cancer.

Christine Clifford Beckwith came to me in 1992 on a mission: she wanted to lower her handicap from a 24 to an 18. Dedicated, she saw me monthly year-round, and worked diligently on her game—the perfect student. And then one day, she came to me for an entirely different reason.

She had just been told she had cancer. She was experiencing a painful déjà vu: her mother had died from breast cancer at 42. But Christine wasn’t wallowing or wondering, “Why me?” Instead, she decided to fend off her disease with two unlikely weapons: wit and golf.

First, she wrote a book (one of six she eventually published) entitled, "Not Now… I’m Having a No Hair Day!" filled with cartoons about her experiences and her life. Golf earned several places in her book: her wig blowing off on the golf course, her golfing buddies giving her 40-foot putts, and her wistful stare into the Pacific Ocean—bald from chemotherapy—while standing on the tee in Carmel, California, thinking, “In my next life, I want to come back as a rock on Pebble Beach.” She started The Cancer Club, which offers humorous and helpful products for people with cancer, and now travels the world speaking about using humor to get through life’s adversities.

She also asked herself, "How can I help find a cure?" With her hundreds of connections in the golfing industry (Arnold Palmer and Tom Weiskopf wrote the forewords to two of her books), Christine started fund-raising. In 1998, Christine asked me to participate in her first of what would be five Christine Clifford Celebrity Golf Invitationals, held at the beautiful Minikahda Club.

I conducted her golf clinic, and over 300 golfers gathered around the practice green to watch and learn. Five years later, we had raised over $1 million for breast cancer research. Little did I know then that my favorite sister Margaret would be diagnosed with cancer—she lost her battle eight years ago. I look back and am grateful for the years I donated my time to help find a cure.

Today, Christine proudly plays to a 14 handicap. She actually got down to an 11 last summer, has played in City League, won the first flight of the Minikahda Ladies’ Club Championship, and shot her career round of 78 at the Chaska Town Course the week after the U.S. Amateur was played there in 2006. She still sees me monthly, and as a thirteen-year survivor, is grateful for every day, whether she gets to tee it up or not. But I am the one who is blessed, because I have Christine as a dear friend and champion student.

-- Gerald McCullagh