Erik Compton probably won’t earn his PGA Tour card after shooting a 76 at the first round of first-stage PGA Tour Qualifying at Crandon Golf Course in Key Biscayne, Fla., but it won’t be for a lack of heart.

Born with heart problems, Compton underwent a heart transplant surgery at the age of 12. In Oct. 2007, Compton suffered a heart attack, and just five months ago received his second heart transplant. Yesterday, he was back on the golf course playing competitively.

“It really does seem like yesterday I was laying in [the hospital] and had tubes in me,” Compton told ESPN’s Bob Harig.

With his pregnant wife and parents watching, Compton was able to use a golf cart during his round - courtesy of Casey Martin’s Supreme Court victory. And while his score means he will likely spend another year battling it out on mini-tours, Compton has more than enough heart to keep up his battle.

“I try not to put myself there that much. I use it as a building block. I obviously have come very, very far in five months. The tour is very hard, but this is what I want to do. Getting through here would be a blessing. But it’s going to be difficult,” Compton told Harig.

P.S.: If you’d like to be involved in giving someone a life-saving transplant but are still attached to your heart, try joining the Bone Marrow Registry. Thousands of people around the country need a life-saving bone marrow transplant and the bone marrow registry is terribly under-populated, especially considering the ease of donating and the ease of the transplant process.

Please think about joining - and I ask you this as a man who will spend his Christmas with his mother, who would not be alive today if not for an anonymous 48-year-old man joining the registry and donating marrow to her.

Find out more about how to join the National Marrow Donor Program’s registry.

–WKW