The Wednesday Pro-Am at the Waste Management Phoenix Open (WMPO) is always full of excitement, with many celebrity pairings that excite even the PGA TOUR players in the field. And while Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers was a fantastic addition to Jordan Spieth’s group on the back-nine, it was another “star” that really made the biggest impression.
Morgan Comer is a senior at St. John Paul II Catholic High School in Tallahassee who is an avid golfer with a four-year scholarship ahead of her, and a major Jordan Spieth fan. She also happens to have faced, among other health issues, B-cell Lymphoma.
“What an incredible story,” Spieth said, of Morgan. “(She’s) an inspiration for all of us, (you) really are,” he told her at his post-round press-conference.
In conjunction with the Make-A-Wish (MAW) foundation, ESPN and the PGA TOUR, Spieth was able to give Morgan the surprise of a lifetime in Scottsdale where he was waiting to greet her in the 15/16 tunnel. She was invited to walk the final few holes with Jordan in the Pro-Am, including the infamous 16th “stadium hole”. Michael Greller almost too quickly passed over caddie duties to Morgan, and she eagerly putted out for Spieth when he offered.
Bouncing among many surprises throughout the day, it was amazing to see this young lady thrive in this environment. Spectators would never guess her story didn’t have the easiest start, with the countless scares along the way. At 11 weeks old, Morgan underwent her first surgery and biopsies confirmed her liver failure and put her on the liver transplant list. It took eight long, excruciating months before they had a match and Morgan was able to undergo a liver transplant, which lasted over 11 hours.
Flash forward many years after what the family thought was a full-recovery, during summer of her Junior year Morgan was diagnosed with cancer; specifically, a rare T cell Lymphoma caused by her anti-rejection medication. After rounds of high doses of steroids for three months, her tumors shrank so significantly her oncologist thought this would be enough to put her body in remission.
Morgan returned to school her Junior year and managed to play her third year of golf for the school but started feeling ill again. Although the T cell Lymphoma had disappeared, now she was diagnosed with B cell Lymphoma, the other more common post-transplant Lymphoma. It is this B cell cancer that Morgan fought for 14 months. She underwent chemotherapy 12 of those 14 months. Her most recent scans revealed that her body was responding well to the treatments and her last chemotherapy treatment was last February. Her doctors at Shands are optimistic that Morgan will be cured from this horrible cancer. She has a four-year golf scholarship awaiting her and, by the looks of things on Wednesday, she will face it with charm, excitement and a huge smile.
Learn more about why this day was so special for Morgan when ESPN’s SportsCenter will shows a full feature of the Morgan’s experience this Summer as part of the My Wish series.