Henry pursuing par and so much more

MARION - Golfers in the Greater Cedar Rapids Open this weekend will battle the Hunters Ridge course and the heat.

One golfer will continue fighting against a much tougher opponent.

When David Henry tees off at 7 this morning, he'll be carrying awareness about melanoma in his golf repertoire with his woods and irons. His “Playing for a Cure” campaign started in September 2008 when his mother, Chris, was diagnosed with Stage IV malignant melanoma. Just recently, David, who grew up in Washington (Iowa), discovered he has Stage I melanoma.

“We're golfers. We're out here in the sun all the time. We're the ones who are going to be most (prone) to it,” said David, whose cancer was cut from his back and who has to get scans every three or four months. “It really hits home when you're watching your mom dying from it.”

A percentage of David's winnings and sponsorships are donated to the Melanoma Research Foundation in honor of his mom, along with Jennifer Thomas, Brian Perry and Tina Miller.

Thomas, Perry and Miller succumbed to melanoma. Chris is still in the fight. She's here this week to watch her son and visit friends.

“For as much as he thinks I'm an inspiration to him, it's 10-fold the other way around,” Chris said. “I wouldn't be here if it weren't for him. To be able to watch him ... to be able to do something that you love and make a career out of it. It's pretty awesome.”

Some would say what Chris and Bill Henry did for their son is in the same category. David was set to move to Winter Garden, Fl., to enter the Professional Golfer's Career College three years ago when his mom found out about her cancer.

“He said he wasn't going to go because he didn't want to be that far away from me,” Chris said. “I said, ‘No, you're going.' He said, ‘No, I'm not.' Then I said, ‘We will pack up and move. You're not giving up on your dreams just because I'm sick.' Within three weeks, we packed up and sold everything and we moved.”

Bill, an insurance agent, said there was no debate. “This is what he wants to do and we're going to support him.”

David, 24, is in the top 10 of the Florida Mini-Tour. He shot a 79 in U.S. Open Qualifying in 2010 but did not qualify for Sectionals. This is his first Cedar Rapids Open, but he's played in a Hunters Ridge amateur event.

“If I make the cut, it's God's blessing,” he said. “I'm here to play golf and have fun.”

And, raise awareness about melanoma, a form of cancer that begins in the cells that create the pigment melanin.