Gilliland Has a Second Shot at Life

The smile didn’t leave Eric Gilliland’s face during his first round at Los Coyotes Country Club earlier this month.

When he sliced his first tee shot one fairway over, he beamed like a kid on Christmas morning. And when he dunked his approach shot in the water on the last hole, the excitement still shone through.

In between, he admired the views of nearby Knott’s Berry Farm and soaked in the beauty of his surroundings.

Golf was secondary on this day. The 17-year-old from Placentia just wanted to appreciate what he had.

Namely, life.

Diagnosed with acute lymphatic leukemia 16 months ago, the El Dorado High senior was given a one-year membership to Los Coyotes by the Make-a-Wish Foundation of Orange County.

With the disease now in remission, Gilliland plans to take advantage of his second chance and the opportunity afforded him by the foundation.

“It’s been a life-changing experience,” Gilliland said. “It makes you see things differently. It’s really made me relax, kick back and see how great life really is. I don’t take anything for granted anymore.”

Gilliland spent the better part of the last 1 1/2 years without many things he used to take for granted.

He was home schooled during the 1998-99 school year and rarely saw his friends. Chemotherapy treatments caused mouth and throat sores so severe he could eat only Popsicles.

Side effects from the medications included cramping and uncontrollable twitching in his leg. Painful spinal taps were a routine part of the treatment.

“It was hell,” Gilliland said. “The worst thing was not knowing what feeling healthy was like.”

But Gilliland turned to golf for inspiration. Part of his psychological treatment included designing the headstone for his own grave. Gilliland chose to have his read “Take it as it comes”--a spinoff of the famous golf saying, “Play it as it lies.”

“He always had a good attitude about it,” said Debbie Gilliland, Eric’s mother. “And I think that attitude and hope is 90% of the cure.”

Fortunately, doctors detected Gilliland’s illness at an early stage. In June of 1998, Gilliland became dizzy and his vision blurred after running sprints during a spring basketball workout. He was diagnosed and began treatments the next day. Within two weeks, he went into remission.

“They say I only had it for two weeks before they found it,” Gilliland said. “It’s a form of high-risk children’s leukemia, which can be really bad. I was lucky.”

Though the disease is in remission, the treatments continued. They also kept Gilliland off the golf course. A beginning player, Gilliland did not make the golf team at El Dorado as a sophomore in 1997 but hoped to practice during the summer and try again in 1998.

He didn’t get the chance.

Though he kept his clubs near his television and practiced chipping in the back yard, his weakened body wouldn’t allow him to play a full round. The portocath in his chest (a tube used to administer chemotherapy treatments) limited his ability to swing a club.

Finally, last June, the portocath was removed and doctors cleared him to play. It was around that time he heard about the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

“A kid in the bed next to me liked the drums and got a drum set from them,” he said. “At first I asked for a computer, but this was the wish in my head that I never said.”

A week later, he called to change his wish.

After a few moths of scrambling and a day of teasing Gilliland that they couldn’t find a club to cooperate, the foundation granted his wish.

“I have nothing but praise and thank yous for everyone,” Gilliland said. “I’m totally blown away by how nice everyone has been.

“It’s like a dessert finishing off what I have been battling for a year and a half.”

But, Gilliland says, he would rather have lived the life of a normal high school kid.

“It’s pretty cool,” he said of the club membership. “But it’s still not worth getting cancer.”

GRAHAM IN FIELD

David Graham has been added to the field for the Diners Club Matches Dec. 11-12 at Pelican Hill in Newport Beach.

Graham, a five-time Senior PGA Tour winner, will be paired with Bruce Fleisher, the senior tour’s leading money winner.

Tickets for the Diners Club Matches are $125 and include admission to both tournament days as well as the Celebrity Pro-Am.

SINAY TO STANFORD

Brian Sinay of University has committed to Stanford. Sinay, who shot a Southern Section record-65 last spring to win his second section individual title, will join former Trojan teammate Ron Won, a Stanford freshman. . . . Bob May, who grew up in La Habra and won as a professional for the first time last month, will be inducted into the SCPGA Junior Golf Hall of Fame. May joins three-time PGA Tour winner Duffy Waldorf and LPGA Tour star Laura Baugh as 1999 inductees.