Avid golfers Larry Bowyer, Johnny Shook and Van Benfield are each fighting forms of lymphoma.

Bowyer, Shook and Benfield, all of Salisbury, aren’t the only local golfers with cancer and other major diseases, but each has played in his share of tournaments over the years, especially the Goode Crowder Dorsett Labor Day Four-Ball Invitational. And they have similar stories.

“I had a hard time swallowing. My stomach was getting bigger than my body and I knew that I wasn’t eating that much.I was not eating enough to fill a bird. All of a sudden, my stomach was protruding out like I had a big shelf. I couldn’t believe it. I knew something was wrong.”

Bowyer, a mailman for the U.S. Postal Service, talked to gastroenterologist Dr. Sam Ganem while on his lunch break, and Ganem suggested Bowyer come by his office that afternoon.

“He said I had a mass in the upper quadrant of my stomach. After a CAT scan, they knew it was the size of a grapefruit. Dr. Ganem referred me to Dr. Bill Black (Carolina Oncology),” Bowyer explained.

“We’re really lucky to have Bill Black in Salisbury, and he has two new people (Dr. William Brinkley and Dr. Mark Wimmer) with him now that help him that much more. He has an office full of people,” Bowyer continued.

Bowyer started chemotherapy in March of 1999.

“I lost all my hair all over my whole body completely. The tumor shrunk to the size of a baseball from about 12 centimeters to about four. It’s still there, but it’s not active at this time. All of the signs look good.” he said.

Bowyer apparently fared better with chemotherapy than most other cancer patients.

“It’s hard to go through chemo, but it didn’t affect me like it did a lot of other people. I just kept going. I would go to work, take chemo and go right to work that night (part-time job with USA Today). Most people it makes deathly sick,” Bowyer said.

Bowyer started back playing some golf during the summer with Bob Smith, son Marty and Jonathan Allen, and Jonathan wanted to play in the Labor Day tourney. Marty Smith and Allen had been golf teammates at North Rowan High School the previous spring.

“I told Jonathan I wanted him to play at any expense, because he needed the experience. He’s a great player and a really nice kid. He’s going to be a wonderful golfer,” said Bowyer.

The Bowyer-Allen team won one of three matches in the sixth flight in the rain-plagued Labor Day event.

Bowyer was also glad to continue his tradition of playing in almost everyLabor Day tourney since 1961.

“I started playing with Charlie Cowan when I was a freshman at Catawba College in 1961. I’ve maybe missed two years out of the whole tournament,” he pointed out. One of those years was 1987, when his first wife, Judy, died of cancer.

Bowyer isn’t back to playing golf on a regular basis, but he’s been hitting balls in the afternoons near Isenberg School.

“This year, if I can find the time to play (in the Labor Day tourney), I’d love to play,” he said.

Bowyer said a lot of people have been praying for him and that he thinks their prayers have been a big part of his recovery.

“I’m not really a Christian person or that much of a believer, but somehow down the line, I know that’s helped me get well. Keeping the faith, that’s what I’ve done,” he said.

Bowyer says he would tell other cancer patients, “You have to hold your head up and keep going. You can’t give up.”

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Shook, 53, found out he had a non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma called mantle cell on July 19, 1998.

“I just got sick at work one day. I went home and told my wife (Lois) to take me to Pro-med. She knew I was sick, because I never go to the doctor,” said the former assistant pro at McCanless Golf Club.

“Dr. (Ronald) Huffman sent me straight to the hospital. That’s when they found my swollen spleen, which was eight times the size it was supposed to be. About two or three weeks later, they took my spleen out.

“It was in the bone marrow, lymph nodes and my spleen,” he said. “It’s a new type of cancer. They didn’t have any drugs for it at the present time, so they gave me a new drug,” said Shook, who also went through chemotherapy.

“Thank God it worked. ... With prayers, my wife (Lois) being with me and everything, it came through and worked for the time being.I’ve been in remission now since March of last year,” he said.

Cancer, says Shook, changed his priority list.

“Golf: It was my second love. My wife, Lois, was the first. She knew where to find me if I wasn’t at home. I still love golf, I just don’t get to play as much as I did. Golf may be third or fourth on the list, instead of second. The family comes first, then church, then golf fits in there somewhere,” he said.

Shook started back playing golf several months after surgery and by late summer of 1999, played with partner James Lober in the Labor Day tourney, which he had missed in 1998 because of surgery.

“It was great. I’m sorry it rained Sunday and made us have to play two matches on Monday. But it was great to get back out to the Country Club and play in it again, it really was,” he said.

Shook and Lober reached the 10th flight finals, falling to Bryce Beard and Boo Blount 5-4.

Shook is back to playing golf on a regular basis now, but gets tired easily and often stops after nine holes.

“They say what I had was an aggressive type and it might come back.I keep telling them it’s not. We’ll see who wins out on that,” he said.

His advice for other cancer patients:

“Just hang in there and keep fighting, because if I can beat it, anybody can beat it.”

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Benfield, 62, first became sick around early March of 1999.

“I had a lump in my throat and a couple of knots in my stomach and groin,” he recalled. “It was in the lymphoma family, but in the non-Hodgkin’s type. They said the cure rate on it was about 85 percent.”

Surgery and chemotherapy were next for Benfield.

“Dr. Whitaker (R. N. Jr.) cut as much of the lump (in the throat) out as he could. Then Dr. Brinkley did a bone marrow check to make sure it wasn’t affected. It came back clear, which was good. ... It was probably about June when I started my chemo. It made me so sick; it drained my system,” said Benfield.

Benfield has had setbacks.

“I had to go into the hospital because I developed a blood clot in my lungs. I was in the hospital for seven days on antibiotics and blood thinner medicine. I’ve had two blood transfusions so far,” he explained. “Iwas in the hospital quite a bit (twice because of blood clots).

“I had a lot of side effects from the chemo, because it was taking my good cells as well as my bad cells, doing a lot of damage inside,” he added.

It took Benfield a while to get back out on the golf course, but he and longtime partner Jerry Allman decided to play in the Labor Day event. After all, they had played in the previous 30 straight tournaments as partners.

“It was pretty important to both of us. We just wanted to make sure we could keep our streak going as long as we could.Jerry had to put a stint in one of his blood vessels before the tournament. We were the walking wounded during that time,” said Benfield.

Allman and Benfield, who won the senior division title in 1996, made it through the 1999 tournament’s senior championship flight despite their illnesses.

“We went 21 holes before we got beat (by Jack Casey and Chip Logan in the semifinals) on Monday. The next week I was so drained I couldn’t hardly do anything,” Benfield recalled.

Benfield gets emotional when he talks about cancer, because he’s seen so many patients come into the Carolina Oncology office.