Jarrod Lyle enjoys the good days, takes the bad ones in stride. This was one of the good days, back on the golf course, competing, getting to do what he had always longed to do. He even holed a fairway shot for an eagle and finished with a 69. It felt good to be back, he said.
The next day was not so good. The ball didn't go where he wanted, the swing didn't feel quite the same, the competitive rust was showing. Lyle labored to a 77 and missed the cut at the season-opening Frys.com Open last month. He had made great strides to get back, but there will be even bigger ones to navigate if he is to achieve his goal of regaining his exempt status on the PGA Tour.
Then again, having been through cancer twice, having fathered a child against all odds, having fought for his life for a second, harrowing time -- are a few bogeys all that bad?
"I think he's just happy to be alive," said fellow Australian golfer Robert Allenby, who has been a mentor to Lyle going back to the first cancer diagnosis at age 17. "He's so happy to have a child in his life, because that wasn't ever meant to happen. Through the first chemo [treatments], there's no chance that you could ever have kids, and for him to have a child, that's pretty much a miracle right there.
"So there's two miracles in his life -- having the child and also being alive. That's why golf, to him, is not the be all and end all. It's definitely his passion, so that's why he wants to play and pursue it with all of us."
"I guess through this whole thing, I said if I never played golf again I'll be happy. I could walk away from the game and be reasonably happy with what I've accomplished." Jarrod Lyle
And so Lyle continues his return to the PGA Tour this week at the Sanderson Farms Championship, the second of 10 tournaments he has left on his major medical exemption on which he must earn $217,679 in order to remain exempt for the rest of the 2015-16 season.
"I'm in a lot better spot than I was in 12 months ago," Lyle said. "I feel a lot more confident. It's been a battle but the golf game is definitely in better shape than it was 12 months ago. So it's nice to be able to sort of know you're hitting it well. I was putting it average earlier in the year but it's starting to come around now."
Lyle, 34, underwent a double umbilical cord blood transplant in 2012 after his second bout with acute myeloid leukemia, which he was first diagnosed with at age 17, at which point he had to spend nine months in bed.
He made an emotional return to competition in late 2013 at the Australian Masters, then attempted to play a few Web.com Tour events to get ready for his return to the PGA Tour in 2014-15. He came back at the 2014 Frys.com Open, but made just three cuts in 10 starts and decided after the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial in May that he needed more time to get healthy and regroup.
So he headed home to Australia with his wife, Briony, and daughter, Lusi -- who was born just days after his second leukemia diagnosis -- and spent the summer trying to regain strength and his game.
Lyle said his biggest challenge is "just wanting to play. I guess through this whole thing, I said if I never played golf again I'll be happy. I could walk away from the game and be reasonably happy with what I've accomplished. Obviously when you're not playing to the best of your abilities you sit back and go, 'Maybe I just don't have it anymore. Maybe I just don't have that drive to go out there and hit balls and practice and go to the gym, and do all that stuff.'
"But my wife has a fairly good right kick to the ass. She's been pushing me to at least go out and give it everything I've got for these last [nine events]. I don't want to get in that position where if I do lose my status and I don't have a job, I don't want to waste it and sit there at the end of it and go, I didn't try. The drive and fight is still there."
Lyle admitted, however, that he tires quickly. Hence, he rarely hits balls following rounds. He is also prone to pick up colds and other minor illnesses as his immune system is compromised due to all his treatments over the years.
That doesn't mean Lyle tries to avoid people. He is a friendly sort who runs into spectators all the time who are aware of his story.
"I met a guy [at the Frys] that said he's just finished his bone marrow transplant and he's coming up to 12 months after," Lyle said. "It's nice to sort of walk around and meet people like that and actually let them know they're still going to be OK. Obviously there's a lot of people who unfortunately don't come out of it. But for those who do, just enjoy life and get out there and have a bit of fun and keep fighting every day. That's all they can hope for."
After Lyle's first diagnosis in 1999, it took more than 12 months before he could walk a golf course again. He forged a friendship at that time with Allenby, then an up-and-coming tour pro who visited with Lyle often in the hospital and remains close to him today.
Lyle said he will head back to Australia after this week for the big summer tournaments, the Australian Masters and Australian Open and possibly the Australian PGA Championship. He will then spend the holidays at his Orlando, Florida, home, recouping and getting ready to again tackle the PGA Tour. His hope is to resume his schedule at the Farmers Insurance Open in January.
"He's an inspiration, there's no doubt about it," Allenby said. "Just the all-time nicest guy you've ever met in your life."
