Another crazy remarkable item in the ongoing saga of Pat Mucci and golf....

[TEPaul]

....this one maybe the most remarkable to date, or of all.

Let me remind you that a few years ago in the throes of a period of physical devolution from cancer and the remedial treatment for it (resulting in the loss of seventy pounds at one point) Pat Mucci took it on as a goal and challenge to stay in the National Singles field that year and he shot a round that would be admirable for any of us who can play in the blush of excellent health and to qualify admirably for the match play draws. So remarkable was that feat that it was the subject of a speech by the Master of ceremonies and the chairman of the tournament committee for the entire Field dinner.

That one I will never forget because I've never seen anything like it or heard of anything like it. It was not just rising to a physical challenge to do with sickness but what it really was about was one of the most intelligent course management displays anyone had ever heard of. Pat managed his way around NGLA to post a remarkably good score (you tell us Pat because I can't exactly remember the number as impressive as it was) with a loss of basic distance that was mind-boggling.

Pat just went through heart surgery last Thursday and today---FOUR FRICKING DAYS later he went out to Liberty National and shot EVEN PAR!!!!

Guys, how can someone do these things much less even have the guts (or stubborness or lack of sense ) to even try it?

Pat Mucci isn't just an inspiration to us on here but he should be to the entire world of golf and beyond.

Let's hear it for Pat!

By the way, paly, you're still wrong somewhere into the 90 percentile and I'm still your teacher on golf architecture but you are something else. You are amazing!

[Bill_McBride]

That is a great story.  I don't what kind of heart surgery he had, but I have always heard that you never feel better than right after you have an angioplasty to clean plaque out of your arteries, lots of fresh oxygen where you didn't have much before.

But no matter what, that is a great story.  Pat is indeed an inspiration!

[Mark Bourgeois]

Well done, Pat !

[Bart Bradley]

Hooray!

Get well soon...and more importantly, stay well Pat.

Bart

[TEPaul]

Bill:

I don't know anything about heart surgery either but semi-intuitively I doubt you would find me around a golf course, much less going out and firing and even par round a couple of days after any kind of heart surgery.

I should add that Pat said the pummeling to his mid-section by surgery rendering him apparently disgustingly black and blue was something else. And if that wasn't bad enough he had the total lack of etiquette to go out to Liberty National wearing shorts. Apparently, after some kind of shot or something his caddie caught a look at this disgusting black and blue damage and damn near fainted from the sight of it.

I know if I was playing with him and I saw that I would've puked or fainted and probably would've been taken off the golf course in a stretcher.

[Peter Pallotta]

Congratulations, Patrick!

I don't have the words to say how impressed I am by what you've accomplished.

I CAN say, however, that I now see the flip side of the infuriatingly pig-headed stubborness of your debating style around here

Thanks for sharing that TE; wonderful work, Patrick

Peter

[Andy Troeger]

Nice round Pat, and best wishes for a continued recovery! Go Irish!

[Mike Sweeney]

I played with Patrick and his cancer surgeon a few years back and I think his surgeon said something along the lines of "not the sharpest tool in the toolshed"   in reference to Pat's timeframe of getting back on the course. In the circle of life, sounds like Pat is still looking for the sharpener!!

My wife had open heart surgery when she was 2 years old at the Mayo Clinic. Her doctors said at the time that she would never be able to participate in sports. In three weeks she will complete her fifth triathlon of the 2008 season at Disneyworld, so Pat is not alone in ignoring their doctors.

[Donnie Beck]

I hope he posted that score for handicap purposes.. Lord knows I need all the strokes I can get if he ever gets up here..

[Joel_Stewart]

I am shocked that Pat would play Liberty National.

Good to hear he is on the mend.

[henrye]

Pat just went through heart surgery last Thursday and today---FOUR FRICKING DAYS later he went out to Liberty National and shot EVEN PAR!!!!

One for the books.  Astonishing!

[BVince]

Pat....you are an inspiration to us all....I hope to meet you someday

[mike_beene]

...but did he pass the drug test?

[Scott Stambaugh]

Well done, Pat !

Unless you're color-blind, you had to laugh at this...

[TEPaul]

"I hope he posted that score for handicap purposes.. Lord knows I need all the strokes I can get if he ever gets up here."

Don't you be concerning yourself with stuff like that Donnie. In my time and travels in golf I've seen guys like Pat before that way and interestingly most of them come from in and around North Jersey like Pat does.

If you play Pat at Fishers he just might let you negotiate him down handicap-wise to your heart's content and then he will STILL go out there and figure out a way to beat you.

Or who really knows, maybe it isn't even a North Jersey thing, maybe it's really some kind of Italian thing, even if North Jersey and Italian may be pretty much one and the same damn thing.

I can tell you in the couple of decades around here I played against everyone and at one time or another and I beat everyone at least once at some point in a match or a stroke play tournament except for one---eg Buddy Marruci which occurs to me now seem pretty damn close in one way or another to Pat Mucci.  Mucci/Marucci, I don't know what it is--maybe it's an Italian thing and maybe it ain't but the names sound pretty similar to me and they've both got something that's awful hard to beat.  

[David Stamm]

The Italian Stallion! You are stud, bubba! I'd wish you a speedy recovery, but apparently you don't need it!  

[RJ_Daley]

And I couldn't shoot even par if they transplanted Tiger's heart into me...  

Nice going Pat!  I don't think I ever got a real answer to whether you are any blood kin to the famous WWII war hero Col. Mucci who led the mission to free the POWs on the Philipines, and who was legendary for his incredible toughness and dedication to physical fitness, open ocean swimming into his late 80s.  Mucci, that is the Italian word for tenacious, is it not?  

[Rick Shefchik]

Patrick, you are a wonder. My golf cap is off to you.

[Dean Paolucci]

Yes, Col. Henry "Hank" Mucci who led his band of Raiders on a rescue mission of prisoners from Bataan and Corregidor is a relative of Pats. 

http://www.rangerfamily.org/Commanders/Henri%20Mucci.htm

http://www.rangerfamily.org/History/History/Battalion%20Pages/sixth.htm

I have been saying it for as long as I have been contributing to this board, hands down Jr. is the best course manager I have ever seen!

[TEPaul]

"The Italian Stallion! You are stud, bubba!"

Yeah, right. I will only touch very lightly on the other stuff he said about his app. 23 hour stay in the hospital and all that stuff. You have to all understand, and it definitely won't surprise anyone on here, but Patrick thinks---no, belay that---he's convinced he KNOWS more about medicine and recovery than any doctor or nurse in any hospital. Does that really surprise anyone on GOLFCLUBATLAS.com?

Pat mentioned this evening that he likes the new high-tech stuff in medicine but he doesn't like the low-tech stuff. Apparently Patrick went through this kind of procedure with his heart some years ago and the low-tech stuff is apparently the way they treated his, ah, his, ah, how should I say this?---well let's call it his "Mr. Magic" years ago during the heart procedure compared to the way they treated his "Mr Magic"during the heart procedure last week. Apparently they put all kinds of tubes and shunts into his "Mr Magic" years ago but this time they only put a condom on his "Mr. Magic".

I guess medicine is really coming along to beat the band, wouldn't you all say, but I bet there are some nurses in that hospital he was in last week that are still blushing after having to deal with Patrick Mucci and his "Mr. Magic"!

SAVY?

[Mike Benham]

I would think that combating the masses in various threads including Shivas' Cheater Line thread is therapy for Pat, giving him strength to take on life and all of it's undulations.

Well done ...

[wsmorrison]

Congratulations, Pat.  Firstly on getting past the procedure and back on your way.  Secondly, on the golf.  I admire your determination and faith in your own capacities.

Maybe now, with all that extra oxygen going to your brain, you will at last come to your full senses.  Best wishes for a full recovery.  Let's celebrate when you come down to Philadelphia for that long awaited visit.
Fondly,
Wayne

[JWinick]

Pat,

Upon meeting you on this site, my irritation at your stubborness has slowly turned to admiration.   Congratulations on your successful recovery.  That's heroic stuff.

Jon

[Michael]

Well done Pat..

 Best of luck on a continued recovery

[Bradley Anderson]

Tom Paul wrote:

"You have to all understand, and it definitely won't surprise anyone on here, but Patrick thinks---no, belay that---he's convinced he KNOWS more about medicine and recovery than any doctor or nurse in any hospital. Does that really surprise anyone on GOLFCLUBATLAS.com?"

One thing they used to say about my father was that: "he wasn't always right but he was always very sure".

You gotta admire that kind of a man. But a man who shoots even par 4 days after heart surgery - now that's about as admirable as it gets.