Brave Kiwi golfer Michael Hendry defied bone marrow treatment to surge up the Australian PGA leaderboard on Saturday with a third-round 64 at Royal Queensland.
Hendry, 44. was diagnosed the leukaemia in April, ruining his hard-earned chance to compete in the British Open at Royal Liverpool in July.
After initial treatment, he returned to the PGA Tour of Australasia at this month’s Queensland PGA at Nudgee, and also competed in the following week’s Gippsland Super Six event.
However, Hendry missed last week’s Victorian PGA, having to instead return to New Zealand for further treatment.
“I was a little bit nervous whether it was going to hurt but … the good thing is now they’ve managed to get the medication right when they’ve given me a bone marrow biopsy.
“It’s painful even though I’m medicated, but the day after there’s no pain, so that’s a real bonus because the first few really hurt for a few days.”
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Hendry has bone marrow treatment every 12 weeks as well as regular blood tests to “monitor what’s going on”.
“At the moment it seems to be doing what it’s told but who knows what the future holds,” he said.
“We’ll just try to make hay while the sun shines.”
While there wasn’t much sun at Royal Queensland on Saturday morning, Hendry more than capitalised on the soft condition to go with a stroke of equalling the course record with his seven-under round on the par-71 layout.
“I got out there early and took advantage of it,” he said. after a round that included seven birdies.
Hendry, who started the day at even par, felt he had little to lose after believing he had missed the cut at the completion of his second round on Friday
“I managed to make a scrappy par (on the 18th) and walking off I thought that was it for the week,” he admitted.
“I obviously got fortunate with a couple of late bogeys from the other boys (that dropped the cut score from one-under to even).
“A bit of luck led to a positive outlook today and all of a sudden I had a good round.
“When you’re that far back, you’re thinking ‘just go and play and have fun.”
He said playing alongside “good mates” Jordan Zunic and Adam Bland also helped.
“I’ve known them for years, so it’s easy to go out there and enjoy your day. Then all of a sudden you get a bit of momentum going,” he said, adding he would adopt a similar attitude in Sunday’s final round.
“I’ve just got to out there and try to make birdies. If I want a chance to win I might have to do something very silly tomorrow.”
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