FORT THOMAS, Ky. — It's his first swing of the day. So Luke Muller isn't too impressed. But he does smile.
“Not bad,” Muller said. "I think I'm in the fairway."
On the green, he makes a birdie. The recent Northern Kentucky University grad is trying to make it as a professional golfer. He knows how tough that is. It's why he's moving to Florida in December to play year-round.
“Golf can consume you,” Muller said. “You have to find a way to overcome that and be mentally tough — because if you’re not, you’re falling behind in a lot of areas of the game.”
And for Muller, mental toughness is not just a sports cliche.
WATCH: See why this golfer says the sport saved his life
At 4 years old, Muller was diagnosed with a rare form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Family friend Tim Price remembers walking into his hospital room and seeing more tubes than he could imagine. Price sat in bed with him and watched the movie, “Cars."
Price said he couldn’t stop crying.
“Truth be told, I didn’t think he was walking out of there,” Price said. “Luke Muller saved my life. It ain’t the other way around.”
The experience gave Price a new purpose in life: helping other kids like Muller. The Luke Muller Golf Outing will celebrate its 20th anniversary next year, as Muller celebrates being cancer-free.
“Golf kind of brought me away from the sickness,” Muller said.
He doesn't remember everything. More bits and spurts. But Muller knows he spent a month in the hospital when he was 4, and then spent two years going through treatment.
“My dad would bring me out here because I couldn’t really be around other kids,” Muller said, sitting in a golf cart at Highland Country Club. “Me and him would just ride around in the cart.”
His mom captured home video from those years: a small boy chasing a ball across the grass, thrashing his club around when he didn't get the ball off the ground.
"Besides all the sweet stuff, I'm a competitor," Muller said.
Even still, he laughs when a putt rolls 10 feet past the hole — almost hitting my camera.
He gives Price a hug at the tee box. Price runs the golf outing, which helps raise money for other families dealing with cancer.
“Every family we see, they’ve just gotten terrible news,” Price said. “Hopefully for a minute — two minutes, 10 seconds — those people forget what’s going on that day."
Muller’s story, he says, is “living proof” to keep going.
"Don’t let someone else tell you how the journey ends," Price said. “You never know what will happen."
The Luke Muller Golf Outing is collecting donations for a toy drive this Christmas. Last year, the group donated 1,200 toys and $20,000 in clothes. For more information, click on this link.
