Mackenzie defies heart defect
MACKINZIE Kline’s weakened heart probably won’t let her make it to her 30th birthday - but the promising teenage golfer is determined to live her dreams all the same.
Born with a congenital heart defect, the 15-year-old star of the fairways is cramming as much activity into her days as possible, and she teed off in her first LGPA tournament today.
Personally invited by leading women’s golfer Annika Sorenstam to play in the Ginn Tribute, which Sorenstam will host, Kline rode the 10km course in South Carolina in a motorised buggy.
The teenager was granted an exception
by the LPGA, which issued a landmark ruling by allowing her to be the first player in history to use the buggy between shots.
Her buggy will also carry an oxygen delivery system, which she will call on when necessary.
Kline was born with only one heart ventricle instead of two, and she was also born without a spleen. Her condition means her body is constantly crying out for air.
By the age of two, Kline had undergone two open-heart surgeries, the first when she was just 11 weeks old.
“What she has accomplished, not only in golf, but for the community is extraordinary,” Sorenstam said yesterday.
Swedish superstar Sorenstam rang Kline personally to invite her to the tournament as a sponsor’s exemption.
“It was really cool,” the teenager said.
“My dad kind of told me that I might be invited, but then Annika called me.
“First, she left a message and said she would call me later. Then later that night she called me and said, ‘You know about this tournament I’m putting on?’ And I said, ‘Yes, I do.’
“And she said, ‘Well, I would love to invite you and I would love for you to come’.
“I was really excited and I said, ‘You bet’.”
Kline doesn’t like to talk about what may lie ahead for her. She says she has much more important things to do other than worry about the future.
“Like making the most of today,” she said.
“(Illness) can make you stronger or tougher, or it can just bring you down if you let it. You can choose. I’m alive so I’m happy.
“Being alive, playing golf well and having the platform to help people, who wouldn’t be happy?
“I’m just a very lucky girl.”
She began playing golf at age five, when her dad John took her to their local course in California.
Even at a young age, she was determined to get involved in sport, but her parents had to find a sport that they thought would be safe for her condition.
Her talent was clear from day one, but through her golf career so far she has only wanted to have fun.
“I know it’s big business, but for me it’s just fun,” she said.
John said: “She works so hard at it that I sometimes wonder about her overdoing it.
“When she was born we were told she might not survive past five, but she keeps on fighting.”
The Ginn Tribute is an anticipated LPGA event, with Sorenstam and Michelle Wie making their return to the tour.
But for all their accolades, all eyes will be on the bubbly teenager from California having the time of her life.
