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PGA CHAMPIONSHIP

August 15, 2006

Billy Mayfair

MEDINAH, ILLINOIS

KELLY ELBIN: Billy Mayfair, ladies and gentlemen, joining us at the 88th PGA Championship. Billy playing this week in his 16th PGA Championship and under unusual circumstances.

Billy, great to have you here.

BILLY MAYFAIR: Thank you.

KELLY ELBIN: Some opening thoughts about your journey to be here at Medinah.

BILLY MAYFAIR: First off, I'm thrilled to death to be here. Two weeks ago today, if you would have told me I was going to be here, I would have never believed it.

The first thing I really want to do is I want to take a moment and just thank everyone for their well wishes, prayers, thoughts, their phone calls. There's no way I could ever call everybody back who called me. Obviously the media, you guys out there wanted to find out the story, but you also respected my privacy, which I can't thank you enough for it.

Obviously the PGA TOUR, the LPGA Tour, the Nationwide Tour guys, the Senior Tour guys, the Hooters Tour guys, Canadian Tour guys, I heard from everyone from every Tour. When you hear from your peers and the players that you play with every week, that means the world to you.

I also heard from a lot of other famous athletes, the Arizona Diamondback organization, all their prayers; the Arizona Cardinals, and when you hear from other professional athletes, like I said, it means the world to you. I'm very thankful for being here. I feel good. I think we caught it early, and I'm looking forward to playing golf this week.

Q. Could you just kind of take us through how it all went, how fast, from how you happened to be diagnosed to how quickly the surgery and everything else went?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Absolutely. My last tournament I played on the PGA TOUR was the Quad Cities, the John Deere Classic in Moline. I took two weeks, I didn't go to the British Open, and I didn't play greater Milwaukee Open or the U.S. Bank Championship. I flew to Moline on Sunday before the tournament, I was going to work on Monday and Tuesday that week with Rick Smith.

And on Sunday night I got there and got in the shower, and just kind of felt something down there that didn't feel good. It felt like a large lump. I kept saying it felt like it was the size of two Titleist golf balls that was down there, and it just didn't feel right. I didn't sleep very much that night, it kind of scared me a lot, and on Monday morning I got up and was going to work with Rick Smith down in Toledo, and all the golf courses were closed. He said, why don't we do it on Tuesday.

So my girlfriend and I contacted the Buick Open, they got us some doctors and we went and had it tested down in Flint. We went from the local doctor on call to another doctor to a radiologist, and when the radiologist got a hold of me, he discovered something down there he didn't think looked right. He thought it was something that might have been could be cancerous and all that, said I needed to get home and have it taken care of or have it looked at immediately.

I contacted some doctors that I know through the Phoenix Thunderbirds down in Phoenix. Got one of the best urologists doctors, Dr. Gil Brito. We talked on the phone Tuesday night in Flint. I flew home actually, Monday night in Flint, flew home Tuesday. He looked at me Wednesday and we had surgery on Thursday morning bright and early. It was a fast thing, from finding it on Sunday night and having surgery on Thursday. I mean, it went real fast.

Q. Is this something your doctors recommend, being here, or is it just something you feel strongly about playing, and are you limited in any way?

BILLY MAYFAIR: First off, my doctors recommended me to come and play here. I never said the PGA Championship. I never thought about playing in the PGA. All my concern was was getting a clean bill of health. I wanted to wipe it out. I wanted to get healthy again, and I wasn't worried if I didn't play this tournament or play the rest of the year on the PGA TOUR. I wasn't concerned about that.

I had some tests done last Thursday, and they all came out negative, and the doctor said to me, go play if you want.

I had a few days of practice at home and got out here. I was very limited at home. I did a lot of chipping and putting. I never hit above a 6 iron when I was home. I hit my first driver out here on the driving range, and it actually felt pretty good. A little sore, legs are a little tired, but other than that, I feel really good.

Q. No other future treatment prescribed at this stage?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, the cancer was obviously stage 1. It was encapsulated. I had a test done last Thursday where they inject my body with some type of radioactive fluid; that if any of my lymph nodes or cancer in it, it would have lit up, and nothing did, which was a great sign.

I do have a decision to make here in the next couple months: Do I go home and have observations and have tests done every two to three months for the next five years, or do I go home and have two weeks of radiation? If that's the case, then I checked out maybe once or twice a year.

I haven't decided what I want to do yet. We'll kind of see get some more blood work done and all that stuff. For right now, I've got a clean bill of health, and I'll have to make some decisions later on.

Q. If you could just talk about the range of emotions you went through from Sunday, Monday, Thursday, and then the following Thursday when you got the clean bill of health.

BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, I mean, I flew to Flint worrying about how I was going to hit the golf ball. I was worried about my golf game. I had played well in Moline and felt good about things.

I got scared Sunday night obviously when I found this big lump. I knew it wasn't right, not normal. I knew something wasn't right. I wasn't too worried about it. I thought it could be a hernia, a cyst, a lot of different things. The first thing you think of is cancer. The last thing you ever think it's going to be is cancer.

It wasn't really until that Monday afternoon when the radiologist in Flint pretty much told me that I had cancer, and I needed to get home and get taken care of. Obviously I was real scared. I was in his office for almost five hours on that Monday of Flint, and I was scared. I was really scared. I was not only thinking of playing golf again, playing on the Tour again, but I was thinking of my family, thinking of my son, Max. A lot of things go through your mind.

When I got home and when I really talked to my doctor, Gil Brito, at home, I felt a lot better because he assured me they were going to do everything they could to help me, take aggressive action. He is one of the best urologists in the country, and he was also going to hand my case over to some great doctors at the University of Indiana.

So that made me feel a little bit better. When he told me I was going to have surgery on Thursday, I got scared again. I had never had surgery or anything like this, so I was obviously very scared.

Obviously after the surgery when they said it was encapsulated and they thought they got everything, I felt a lot better. Probably when I felt the best was after this last test I had when they put the dye through my body and no lymph nodes or anything bad turned up. I feel very blessed and very lucky. And everyone who has sent well wishes and blessings to me, I can't thank them enough.

Q. Just how great does it feel just to be out here swinging a golf club? Do the fairways look greener, the sky look bluer?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Everything looks great, trust me. Just walking, hitting shots, just mentally trying to get ready to play golf again, it's fun. If I get mad and swing a club or kick something, I'll get mad at myself because I should be thankful just for being here, and I am.

Q. I don't know if you have a history of cancer in your family, but you obviously have a history of cancer in close family in terms of Heather. Could you just talk about, A, your relationship with her as kids, and how much that affected you, her death?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, Heather was my sister. We grew up together. We grew up. Down in Phoenix we had the same instructor, Arch Watkins. She was a year older than I was. We won the PGA Junior down in Florida one year. I believe that was 1980 or '82.

You know, obviously I remember the day I was in Hartford, Connecticut, when I called home, and my instructor, Arch, told me that Heather was diagnosed with breast cancer. I didn't know that much about it, but being around Heather and seeing what she went through and all that, I learned a lot more about cancer.

It scares me, absolutely, and I miss her. I miss her terribly. She was like a sister to me. I miss her every day. I think about her and how much talent she had, not only on the golf course but off the golf course and how great of a person she was. Everything happens for a reason, I guess, in the world, but I still can't believe that she was taken away from us.

The nice thing, too, is that Missy, her sister, who I'm real good friends with, she was there on Thursday when I had the surgery. So just having at least her sister, Missy, by my side meant a lot to me.

KELLY ELBIN: Billy is referring to the late Heather Farr, who won the Junior PGA Championship in the 1970s.

Q. What was the nature of the surgery, and why were you able to bounce back so fast and play golf again in such a short time?

BILLY MAYFAIR: The biggest thing is I caught it early. The nature of the surgery was that they had to remove my right testicle, and they went in just above my belt line on that right side there and got it out that way.

The reason why I think I can play so soon is, one, we caught it early. It didn't spread. And two, I had a fabulous doctor that took good care of me and stitched me up real well. I've always felt like I've been a pretty fast healer. I listened to what the doctor said. I didn't go out and hit drivers, go out and try to overdo it too fast. Even today, he wanted me to hit a few balls, play nine holes and get the feel for it, and I did. It was tempting. I wanted to play more to try to get ready, but I'm going to listen to what my doctors say to me and do what they tell me to do.

Q. I'm just curious what your reaction was, if you had heard that Harrington was donating his winnings this week to breast cancer research.

BILLY MAYFAIR: No, I did not know that. I do know I have talked to some people about trying to get a hold of what happened over there and with Darren Clarke's wife passing away, I know she hasn't been very well and all that stuff, but I think that's very nice of Padraig and all that stuff. I do know that we're going to send a donation to Darren Clarke's foundation for breast cancer and all that stuff, too. I think it's obviously something that needs to be taken care of now and all that good stuff, but I think that's very, very nice of Padraig to do that.

Q. It's all happened to you so fast, I wonder if you've looked at this in the big picture in terms of your own mortality or whether it happened

BILLY MAYFAIR: It's something that hit me on the side of the head, that's for sure. It happened really, really fast. Like I said, I'm still I'm thankful. I say my prayers, and I'm thankful for all the prayers I got out there that I was able to come back as quickly as I have. I've got a lot of recovery to do. I'm still sore and still tired, but obviously when you get a clean bill of health, it's a blessing.

It definitely was fast. Flying to Flint in August Sunday of Flint was my birthday. I was turning 40 years old. I had a great week planned, and unfortunately it was cut short. That's just the little surprises life can throw at you, and I'm just real thankful that everyone there in Flint and Scottsdale took good care of me and we caught it early.

Q. I just wondered maybe what was the most frightening moment. You talked about the surgery, but is it when you wake up and you don't know, or is it when they say the C word?

BILLY MAYFAIR: To me it was when they said the C word. When I was called back in, like I said, we saw the local doctor there in Flint, and he kind of looked at it and sent me to get an ultrasound done. And the lady from the ultrasound looked at it and wanted to check it out with her doctor before they went on, so they sent us off and had lunch.

My girlfriend and I were sitting there having lunch and we got a phone call from the urologist saying that we need to get back in here. And we came in and they took us right back to a room and they showed us the films and all that. It was at that point that I got scared because it definitely it was definitely cancer. They didn't know if it had spread. They had to wait three or four hours because we had just eaten lunch. They had to wait three or four hours before they could put the dye through my body to have the test. Waiting for three or four hours and thinking about it, that was probably the scariest thing of all.

Obviously the surgery was scary for me because I had never had surgery, but like I said, once I met my doctor, Dr. Gil Brito, there in Phoenix, I felt better. But the scariest part was waiting for the diagnosis there in Flint on Monday.

Q. Have you seen any of your fellow players before today, and what's been the best part of today for you?

BILLY MAYFAIR: Well, I've seen a couple of the Tour guys at home who have called me. Obviously I've talked to some of the Diamondbacks at home and some of the Arizona Cardinal players have called me. But a lot of the players out here, I must have got 50 or 60 phone calls from players wishing me well; and just seeing them today, the club manufacturers, the reps, a lot of people wished me well.

You know, probably the highlight of today was waking up. I woke up this morning and I'm going to go play golf. I'm going to go play golf on the PGA. It's only been a month since I've played my last PGA TOUR event but a lot of things have happened in that month. Probably the happiest moment of today was waking up and knowing I was going to play golf today. It kind of puts everything in perspective real fast.

KELLY ELBIN: Billy Mayfair, thank you very, very much.

End of FastScripts.

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