He Also Displays Multiple Courage

As he stood in his place at the driving range at Riviera, Brett Massingham took a look around and wondered if he belonged. It’s not only because Massingham is a club pro. It’s not because he had to qualify. It isn’t because he has never played a pro event.

What sets Massingham apart is his illness. The 37-year-old from Marbella Country Club in San Juan Capistrano was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis six years ago, a couple of months after he couldn’t pull himself out of a bunker while playing a tournament at La Quinta.

He is the only known player with MS to play in a pro golf event, but that’s not close to how Massingham wants to be known. He just wants to play the Nissan Open.

“I can play golf,” he says. “I don’t know about this level, under these conditions.

“A successful week for me would be to make the cut and enjoy myself to the fullest. If I’m not smiling and enjoying it, I’m not having any success. This could be my only time. I can’t win, I know that, I just want to get out there and play golf and walk in their shoes for awhile.”

Walking in Massingham’s shoes is something that few can appreciate. Dennis Paulson, who played a practice round with Massingham on Tuesday, says he can’t fully understand how his friend can handle the illness so well.

“It’s absolutely awesome he qualified,” Paulson said. “He’s a great kid. Being around him, you understand there’s a lot bigger things than golf. He’s a real spirit and a showcase for people who also have that disease.”

Massingham, from Rancho Santa Margarita, played the South Pacific Tour in 1992 and in 1993, he was an alternate for the Hogan Tour’s Bakersfield Event. He also qualified for the Bakersfield event in 1994. When he played the 1995 PGA Apprentice Championship at La Quinta’s Dunes Course, he fell face first into a bunker and thought he had heatstroke.

He began having seizures and he visited five doctors who had difficulty in diagnosing his problem. One doctor said he had a brain tumor. But after undergoing a spinal tap, Massingham learned he had multiple sclerosis, a degenerative disease that destroys tissue around nerve endings and whose effects range from seizures to paralysis.

At his lowest point, Massingham counted 120 seizures in one day and he lost 65 pounds. He was blind in one eye for nearly a week.

Steroid injections began to help almost immediately and within 10 months, he was ready to play golf again. Although he still has headaches, weakness and dizziness, Massingham gives himself injections every other day and his illness appears to be in remission.

When he tees off today, Massingham will be playing golf, no matter how remote that possibility might have seemed.

“You can’t measure heart, you can’t measure determination.”