A nine-hole match with the devil: two-time major winner Hubert Green takes on cancer with the same resolve he shows on the golf course

Golf Digest, March, 2004 by Dave Kindred

Green went home to stay on Aug. 22, and two weeks later his journal's headline read, "MATCH OVER--VICTORY GREEN TEAM." He'd had another CAT scan. It showed: "The big C is no more."

For months the basic acts of eating and talking continued to be difficult and often painful. His health remained at risk; radiation and chemotherapy destroy good cells with bad, leaving a patient with a diminished immune system. Doctors have told him that if the cancer returns, the chances are 90 percent it will do so within two years.

On that winter day when he left the practice range unimpressed, Hubert Green sat on the balcony behind the Hombre clubhouse. His weight had risen from 143 to 165, not yet his normal 180.

He was tired, maybe sad, frustrated. He wanted to be golf's Hubert Green, not cancer's Hubert Green. And he wanted it yesterday. Talk got around to the three-footer at Augusta and the truth that being alive is a better thing than any putt.

He laughed and said this next quickly, happily: "If I beat this, there'll be more putts to make."

To comment, send e-mails to: kindred@golfdigest.com