Harvey experiences healing powers of the Myrtle Beach World Am

Many of Sandy Harvey’s friends and acquaintances believed her focus last year to be misguided.

The resident of League City, Texas, had a mastectomy operation to remove both of her breasts because of cancer in March 2014.

In the lead up to the surgery and the months that followed, many of the decisions she made were to guarantee she would be able to attend for her fourth consecutive Myrtle Beach World Amateur Handicap Championship rather than what might have been in her best interest.

“There were some of the women who said, ‘Sandy, why are you focused on the World Am? You’re sick. You need to get well,’” said friend and fellow World Am participant Susan Coulter on Tuesday.

But for Harvey, returning to the World Am was the motivation she needed to aggressively overcome her illness.

“It was really important to me, and it probably took my mind off of the fact that I had cancer and I was going through this,” Harvey said. “And I never got down. I love golf and it helped me through a very difficult time in my life.”

“[Returning to the World Am] inspired me and made me go through the pain.”

Not only did Harvey return to the tournament last year, she won her flight and played in the championship round at Barefoot Resort’s Dye Club.

“We were worried she was pushing things too quickly,” Coulter said. “But I think it was exactly the right medicine for her, coming back and getting to play here.”

Harvey is still cancer free and healthy as of her most recent checkup in July, and a trip that began as a two-person girls’ trip in 2011 and grew to 10 players last year now features 16 women from the League City area, including nine in a house in North Myrtle Beach from South Shore Harbour Country Club, where Harvey is the vice president of the ladies golf association.

This year’s trip is in part a celebration of Harvey’s will and her victory over cancer. “It’s a big celebration this year for sure,” said friend Teresa Todaro of Nassau Bay, Texas.

“First she’s a champion and second she’s cancer-free,” Coulter said. “She has been a role model for all of us going through this. The strength and the positiveness – she never complained and never felt sorry for herself.”

Harvey, 64, is a property manager. She was diagnosed in late January 2014 with two types of cancer – invasive lobular carcinoma in the right breast and invasive ductal carcinoma in the left breast. The cancer was diagnosed early, in Stage 1, through a mammogram and follow-up diagnostic screening.

“Shock city, I find out I have cancer,” Harvey said.

Harvey interviewed three doctors to determine who would do the surgery, as well as oncologists and plastic surgeons who would treat her afterward. She had the same message for all of them.

“Everyone I talked to I said, ‘My goal is by the end of August I have to be able to play golf,’” Harvey said. “They’re all looking at me like, ‘Lady, you’ve just been told you have breast cancer, not just in one breast but two.’

“The main thing was getting the surgery done in time so I would heal so I could start swinging a club and get back to playing golf with the ultimate goal of coming here. That was my motivation.”

To expedite the recovery process, Harvey had both the mastectomy and reconstructive surgery simultaneously on March 20 – the anniversary date of her marriage to husband Charley – requiring two surgeons to work the same five-hour surgery. “I said, ‘Well, we’re going to be together. You’re going to be in the waiting room,’” Harvey recalled telling her husband.

She also delayed having her breast implant surgery from July until after the tournament, instead playing with expanders that were painful.

“Last year was a questionable journey and she put off a lot of things to be here last year that she should have had done,” Todaro said. “She pushed through a lot.”

The mastectomy allowed her to forego radiation sessions in addition to her chemotherapy. Harvey had setbacks including an infection and an AFib episode shortly after the surgery, but she trudged on with the World Am in her sights.

“I think it kept her up, kept her motivated, it kept her out working hard, practicing, trying to get strong enough and mobile enough … and she kept at it because she wanted to be well enough to play here,” Coulter said.

A member invitational in early June with Coulter as her partner was Harvey’s return to the course, and they finished nearly last in a tournament they had previously won.

She hadn’t played more than two consecutive days before traveling to Myrtle Beach, where she played 18 holes for six straight days. “I didn’t know if I could play four days in a row,” Harvey said. “I told everyone not to be surprised if they saw me at home because I was too tired to do it.”

Harvey, who was about an 18 handicap in her World Am debut and played as about a 23 last year, hadn’t finished better than 13^th in her flight in her first three appearances.

She didn’t know she won her flight until the night of the fourth round, when she learned the woman who had the lowest score in her flight had her handicap adjusted, moving her to the top. She was so shocked she cried.

“For her to be able to come and have the strength and the centeredness of being able to focus on golf, and then to win, I think that was supposed to happen,” Coulter said. “I really do think God had a role in this.”

Now that she’s back to playing regularly and an annual participant in the World Am, she has the perspective that many of her friends and acquaintances expected her to have during her cancer battle.

“I haven’t had the time to spend on golf that I used to,” said Harvey, who credits her friends, family and church group for helping her get through the recovery. “All of this has given me a different perspective on life and things that are important. Golf is very important, but it’s not the No. 1 thing anymore like it was from a motivational standpoint. It got me through that, but now instead of going out and practicing all the time I might go walking or do something else because I appreciate other things.”

This story was originally published September 2, 2015 at 9:00 PM with the headline "Harvey experiences healing powers of the Myrtle Beach World Am."