(From October 10, 1998 issue)

Molder is bolder

Georgia Tech sophomore's determination enough to overcome disabilities, tragedy

By RON BALICKI
Senior Writer, GOLFWEEK

When you consider he is one of the best amateur/college players in the country, it becomes truly amazing.

Since the day Bryce Molder came into this world, he has been fighting the odds. And so far, he has been winning. From the beginning, he has accepted what he's been dealt and reached new levels of excellence at each stage of his golf game -- and of his life.

Molder, 19, won his first tournament at 8, was an American Junior Golf Association All-American, an all-state high school player in Arkansas and Golfweek's No. 2-ranked junior in the nation at one point.

As a freshman last season at Georgia Tech, Molder had 11 top-20 finishes in 13 starts, placed second at the NCAA East Regional and sixth at the NCAA Championship and was Golfweek's co-player of the year. This summer he tied for second at the Northeast Amateur and was a quarterfinalist at the U.S. Amateur.

Not bad for a guy who was born with no left pectoral muscle, which makes that side of his chest concave, and Poland Syndrome, a fairly rare defect that made his left hand much smaller than his right. In fact, three of his fingers on his left hand were webbed together up to the knuckle, which resulted in two surgeries by the time he was 5. Prior to the second surgery, Molder's parents, Barry and Connie of Conway, Ark., promised him a set of cut-down golf clubs and a bag with his name on it. After the operation, they delivered and he's been playing ever since.

"I remember Bryce telling us the way we accepted it is the way he would accept it," said Connie. "We never said these problems would hold him back. We never tried to keep him from doing what he wanted to do growing up."

And he did just about everything. Along with his golf, Molder played soccer and baseball through the fifth grade and basketball through the eighth grade. By the ninth grade, he knew that golf was going to be his sport, the one he believed he could excel at despite his physical problems.

"If I would have been OK and then had an accident or something, it might have been harder to deal with," Molder said. "But being born with it, you adapt to it. It really didn't make much of a difference. That's just the way it was, and I accepted it.

"I never said, 'I can't do this' or, 'I can't do that.' It was more like, 'How am I going to do it?' You just have to figure out a way."

Molder has overcome his physical drawbacks and put together an impressive golf portfolio, one that includes first-team All-America honors last season.

That may have been the easy part, though. At 14 he had to overcome something much greater. His 16-year-old sister, Kelli, died, becoming sick while attending a tournament to watch her little brother play the game he loved.

It happened Easter weekend in 1993, while Molder, then 14, was competing in the AJGA tournament at The Woodlands, Texas, north of Houston. His parents were also there.

"Kelli and Bryce were very close," said Connie. "She was so proud of him and his golf and of all the things he had accomplished. She would always brag about him to her friends."

On Saturday night, following the first round, Kelli became sick, complaining of headaches, chills and running a fever. She was taken to the emergency room at The Woodlands. She was thought to be suffering from allergies and a sinus infection. Given some medication, she was released.

Early the next morning, Bryce left for the course. His parents stayed behind to look after Kelli. But when they tried to wake her, she didn't respond. She was in a coma.

They rushed her back to the hospital and by the afternoon she was put on life support. Her heart had stopped beating and her brain was non-functional.

On Thursday of that week the life support system was turned off. Kelli died.

"That was very difficult for Bryce, for our family," said Barry. "It hit us all very hard. When you lose a daughter, a sister, it changes your life. We were all devastated. It was Bryce's golf that truly got us through that summer. It gave us something to focus on."

It also forced a 14-year-old to grow up in a hurry and help put things in a new perspective.

"When Kelli died it gave me the realization that golf is just a game and that there are so many things more important," Molder said. "If I hit a bad shot, or miss a putt, or play a bad round, I know it's not the end of the world. There are a lot of worse things that can happen."

And, so it seems, for Bryce Molder, they have. But through it all he has never given up.

"I always felt his heart beat a little stronger than most 18-year olds," said Georgia Tech coach Bruce Heppler. "With everything he's gone through, he's had to mature a lot faster. He looks at life like a 25-year-old. I've always said that, while Bryce is a great player, he's a better person than he is a golfer."

Another Georgia Tech player, who is quite an accomplished player himself, agrees.

"He's truly incredible," said junior Matt Kuchar, the 1997 U.S. Amateur champion. "I have so much respect for him. He's had to overcome a lot of adversity, and he has.

"He's one of the best athletes I know, very gifted, very talented. And he doesn't let any of his success go to his head," said Kuchar, who, along with two other teammates, is rooming with Molder this season. "He did all the stuff freshmen have to do no matter how well he played, and he never complained. He's grateful for the things he has and he's always ready to give of himself."

For Molder, a management major who made the dean's list with a 3.28 GPA as a freshman, playing golf professionally isn't the only thing in his plans. He'd also like to get into designing golf courses, something he has been tinkering with for almost as long as he's been playing.

"He loves to play golf and he loves to draw," said Connie. "He designed a golf course, clubhouse, parking lot, the whole works, when he was 10 years old. He had ideas and visions even at that age. He loves to sit down and draw them on paper."

That's why Molder does more than simply play a course. He studies it, analyzes it, dissects it.

"My favorite part of playing tournaments is seeing new courses," he said. "I try to think what the architect was thinking on every hole. I probably have five or six courses drawn out. I try to make them as realistic as possible and I usually make them as hard as can be.

"Ideally, I'd like to be successful as a player on (PGA) Tour and do course design as well."

One thing is pretty much certain. No matter what obstacles or drawbacks come his way, he'll be able to handle it. After all, Molder has been in training since the day he was born.