TROON, Scotland — Doctors help save lives.
Medicine helps save lives.
Family helps save lives.
In some cases, golf does, too.
Michael Hendry, a 44-year-old New Zealander who plays on the Asian Tour, stood on the first tee of Royal Troon at 6:57 a.m. Scotland time Thursday — third off in the 152nd British Open — in large part because doctors saved his life after he was diagnosed with leukemia last year.
Hendry was on that first tee in the spitting morning mist because he never stopped believing he could get there again and because of the support and positivity of his wife, Tara, as he lay in a hospital bed for some four months undergoing comprehensive chemotherapy.
And he was there because the R&A offered Hendry — who’d earned his spot in the 2023 Open with a tournament win in Hong Kong only to be forced to withdraw after his diagnosis — a spot in the 2024 field if he was healthy enough to make it.
It was a classy and compassionate gesture that played its own part in helping to save Hendry’s life. The R&A, in its mind simply wanting to do the right thing, surely had no idea how powerful the gesture was.
“This was a key to my recovery, knowing that I could play this if I got healthy,’’ Hendry said Thursday after shooting an opening-round 3-over 74. “Words can’t really describe how grateful I am, not only to the R&A, but to all of the doctors and nurses who have helped me over the last 12 months.’’
Tara Hendry called the special invitation from the R&A to her husband “crucial’’ to recovery.
“They were amazing at coming back and saying quite early on that they wanted to hold that spot for him,’’ she told The Post. “That just gives you something to work towards, you know. Goals are good, right?’’
Hendry, like any golfer, came to this Open with goals. Of course, he’d like to make the cut. What he didn’t realize is that, 20 years ago on this very course, Todd Hamilton won the Open as a player competing in the relative obscurity of the same Asian Tour on which Hendry plays.
Hendry sits in 70th place, nine shots out of the lead, entering Friday’s second round. But the numbers hardly matter. What matters most is the fact that he’s here.
Hendry was 4-over through his first five holes and, after a bogey on No. 5, his 9-year-old daughter Maddison, standing just outside the ropes, gave him a hug. Hendry proceeded to play his final 13 holes in 1-under par.
“I could tell he was nervous on the first four or five holes,’’ Tara said. “Just by the look on his face, you could tell something else was there, going on in his mind.’’
Hendry acknowledged as much.
“It was a mixture of too much reminiscing, too many thoughts about, ‘Geez, I’m actually here, I’m actually doing this,’ ’’ he said. “I suppose it just took a few holes to get through that.’’
There were times intermittently in conversation after his round that Hendry was overtaken with emotion.
Those emotions were stoked by the reality that it’s been only months since he was lying in a hospital bed wondering not about whether he’d play golf again, but how long he had to live.
Those emotions, too, were evident when he spoke of his wife and two daughters, all of whom are with him this week, a rarity since he plays some 18 events in Japan.
“I really hoped I was going to be healthy enough to play this week so I could bring them over,’’ Hendry said. “I’m no spring chicken anymore, and playing on the Japan Tour, we don’t get that many opportunities to get into major events.
“This could very well be my last British Open, and my girls are now just at the age where they can kind of understand what Dad does, and to have them here and experiencing The Open they can see that Dad is able to do come cool things.’’
The girls will understand just how cool their dad’s story really is a few years down the road.
“He doesn’t want to be remembered for being the golfer who has cancer,’’ Tara said. “He wants to be remembered for the person that he is. For the people that are going through what he’s been through, he’s a great role model.’’
While healthy at the moment, Hendry is hardly out of the woods. There are cancer cells still in his blood and, according to Tara, doctors told them there’s an 85 percent chance the leukemia returns. So, he remains on medications to control that, and he’s living his life with a much different outlook.
“Being met with your own mortality does change you hugely,’’ Hendry said. “It’s allowed me to appreciate life in a way that I wouldn’t have without going through this experience. I’m a far happier person.
“It’s a lot easier to get over the bad shots, because you’re not fighting for your life in a hospital somewhere. This week has so much significance after what I went through last year. I feel like this week hopefully will draw a line through that part of my life, and I can move on.’’