Crompton takes game to heart: Other golf notes

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As the PGA Tour season officially ends outside Orlando, there remains no debate about the story of the year. Not when Tiger Woods, while nursing torn knee ligaments and a stress fracture in his left leg, wins a riveting U.S. Open in a 19-hole playoff against Rocco Mediate.That script had it all -- America's national championship, the world's top player, a personable Everyman challenger, daunting health obstacles and sustained drama.This week's story line includes only the medical element, but Erik Compton's tale makes Woods' injuries seem tame by comparison. Compton will play in a PGA Tour event today, five months after his second heart transplant.Compton, 28, was the world's No. 1 junior in 1997. But his pro career stalled mostly because of persistent health trouble, including a near-fatal heart attack in October 2007, and he settled for playing the Nationwide Tour and teaching golf near his Miami home.Compton was an active kid, playing the usual array of sports, when a physical exam revealed a virus attacking his heart, which was enlarged with an irregular beat. He had his first transplant in February 1992, at age 12; the heart was donated by a 15-year-old girl who died in a car accident. Compton's second transplant came in May, with a heart donated by a 26-year-old former volleyball player who died in a motorcycle accident. Former Stanford golfer Casey Martin also figures into this comeback, because Compton successfully petitioned the tour to ride a cart in competition. Martin's long legal fight in the 1990s paved the way for Compton to use the cart, as he did in the first stage of qualifying school last month (he advanced with a stirring, final-round rally).He described his life as "pretty normal," except for all the pills he takes every morning and every night, the bouts of fatigue and the uncertainty about his future. Compton, playing this week on a sponsor exemption, knows his body could not handle anything near a full schedule, even if he earns his tour card.For now, he's optimistic about his game, excited about the impending arrival of his first child (his wife is due in February) and contemplative about his health. Asked how often he thinks about the fact another person's heart beats inside him, Compton told reporters Wednesday, "I think about it all the time. It's who I am, and it's something I don't want to forget because it reminds me I'm alive."SIGN OF THE TIMES: Andy Bean was giddy and grateful in the wake of his Champions Tour victory Sunday in Sonoma. Bean earned $442,000. By contrast, his largest check in a PGA Tour event was $150,000 for unofficial wins at Kapalua, Hawaii, in 1986 and '87. He earned $40,000, $54,000 and $90,000 for his three victories at Doral (in Miami), the last one coming in March 1986. Geoff Ogilvy, this year's winner at Doral, took home $1.35 million.As Bean re-traced his numbers, he paused, smiled and said, "Those kids out there today, they don't know how lucky they are. Thank you, Tiger."TAP-INS: Augusta National announced minor course changes, mostly to give officials the flexibility to shorten holes in bad weather. Chairman Billy Payne is moving carefully, but he's shrewd enough to know changes are needed after two consecutive Masters with little excitement.(E-mail Ron Kroichick at rkroichick@sfchronicle.com.)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)