Gorman golfer works to get back on course

Nick Christensen

Thursday, April 1, 2004 | 9:59 a.m.

A pensive smile is the first thing you notice about Bishop Gorman senior Jonathan Harris. The scar is the second.

Running from just above his right ankle to his lower thigh, it hides the titanium tibia, fibula and kneecap that were put in last year in an effort to stop the cancer that he found quite by accident.

The leg isn't quite healed, but Harris' golf game is back on track for the Gaels, thanks to physical therapy, determination and a few lessons learned from a harrowing experience that started more than a year ago and still isn't over.

In December 2002, Harris took a fall while snowboarding and felt pain in his tibia that proved to be from a tumor. When doctors looked into it, they found the bone was cancerous.

He began chemotherapy 14 months ago, and continued every other week from that February through May, when doctors removed the bones and the muscle from the then junior.

Harris went through months of limited use of the leg, and was still walking with a cane at the start of the 2004 prep golf season. He undergoes physical therapy two to three times a week, working on rebuilding the muscle that he lost to his sickness. Every three months, he returns to his doctors in San Francisco for a checkup.

Through it all, he was there with his team, as the Gaels won the 2003 state title.

"We dedicated our season to him. We put his initials on our shirts," Gorman teammate Garrett Logan said. "He was always at our matches, supporting us, whether he was in a wheelchair, or if he was bald, he was always around, rooting us on."

The team and Harris served as mutual fan clubs. The team supported Harris, telling him everything would be OK, and Harris came to back his teammates as much as he could.

All the while, he taught them lessons in patience - something always at a premium in golf, especially with teenage boys on the course.

"His attitude isn't, 'I missed a hit here,' " Gaels first-year coach Randy Lance said. "It's more, 'I'm happy to be out here and be a part of the team.' "

After all, what's a missed putt when you spent most of last year keeping your body intact?

"I was playing really well, I was probably in the best shape of my life," Harris said, adding he lost about 25 pounds during his ordeal. "I'm playing just as good now as I was before."

Which isn't to say that Harris is at 100 percent. Lance said that there are times when Harris can't practice because his leg just isn't up to it. And he's benefited from only playing nine holes in regular season matches, where the Gaels are 4-2 so far.

"There are days when I think he's tired, the weather's been so warm lately," Lance said. "I watch what he does at practices; he doesn't give in. He's definitely competitive."

Lance said Harris has been shooting in the 40s so far this year, but broke into the 30s Tuesday at Las Vegas C.C.