As Corey Pereira battles U.S. Open field, he’s helping girlfriend fight for her life
LOS ANGELES – When Corey Pereira’s 35-foot slider for par dropped on Los Angeles Country Club’s second green on Thursday afternoon, inciting a thunderous applause from the U.S. Open crowd, Pereira turned to his caddie, instructor Phil Dawson, and exclaimed, “This is literally the best moment of my life.”
“That’s exactly what I thought professional would be like as a kid,” said the 28-year-old Pereira, who grew up in Cameron Park, California, just outside of Sacramento.
The same can’t be said for the past eight months.
Pereira’s major-championship debut marks his first tournament since losing his Korn Ferry Tour card in August. He played local and final qualifiers, but that’s it. Instead, he’s shifted focus to his girlfriend of nearly seven years, Leah Bertuccelli, who was diagnosed with cancer last October.
“For him to drop everything to care of me, it’s made me feel so loved,” Bertuccelli said. “He’s been my rock, giving me someone to lean on. He really has motivated and pushed me to stay in this fight.”
Since turning pro in 2017 after an All-American career at Washington, Pereira has been battling his way up the ranks of professional golf. In his second year as a pro, he finished top five on the PGA Tour Canada money list to earn his Korn Ferry Tour card. But halfway through his debut season on golf’s main developmental tour, a lower-back injury sapped Pereira’s performance, and he lost his card after just one campaign. He got his status back through Q-School two years ago, only to notch one top-10 finish and end up outside the top 100 in points.
“Last year was no excuse,” Pereira said. “I just didn’t play good enough golf.”
Golf, let alone bad golf, soon seemed inconsequential, though, as the fall brought Bertuccelli’s devastating diagnosis. A 26-year-old former pole vaulter at Washington, Bertuccelli discovered that a lump in her lower body was actually a tumor, the result of a rare, soft-tissue cancer of the skeletal muscles called rhabdomyosarcoma.
Bertuccelli’s treatment started almost immediately, and Pereira didn’t touch a golf club for nearly four months as he shuttled Bertuccelli back and forth between Sacramento and the Stanford Cancer Center, where she’s now undergone 10 of her scheduled 12 cycles of chemotherapy.
“In the beginning, it was just such a scare,” Pereira said. “Extreme stress, extreme emotions and tears almost every night. We didn’t know what we were going to hear next, and some of those doctor’s appointments were just nightmares.”
When Pereira started practicing again last winter, his golf remained secondary. He usually starts his days a 5 a.m., getting in an early-morning workout so that he has more time for Bertuccelli, who often accompanies Pereira to the gym. They also frequently go fishing and bowl together (Pereira holds around a 207 average and has bowled one 300 game). Last fall, Pereira also changed his diet, eliminating all sugar. He’s now down two pant sizes. And as he continues to show Bertuccelli that she’ll never fight alone, he now sports a shaved head.
Pereira’s father, John, who attended high school an hour from LACC, has felt incredible pride witnessing how selfless his son has been.
“It’s the man he is,” John Pereira said. “It’s been tough, but it’s been rewarding tough in that they’ve struggled through the up and downs of cancer and chemo and radiation, while he’s trying to get some golf in, but his priority was always Leah. He understands that golf gets in the way of life, but life is really the main goal.”
There was a point these past eight months where Corey Pereira contemplated giving up professional golf permanently and getting a day job. But with some urging, he signed up for a U.S. Open local qualifier on April 26 in Mesquite, Nevada. He shot 70 at CasaBlanca Golf Club to grab one of four spots in final qualifying. Pereira then entered the Columbus, Ohio, qualifier, one loaded with PGA Tour pros, and was one of 11 players to advance, shooting 9 under in 36 holes to tie for third.
Just minutes after punching his U.S. Open ticket, Pereira dialed Bertuccelli, who says she burst into tears upon hearing the news that Pereira was headed to Los Angeles.
The only problem: Bertuccelli had her second-to-last chemo cycle slated for the week of the championship.
“But I had to be there,” said Bertuccelli, who emailed her doctors, pleading for them to postpone her treatment until the following week. They obliged.
“I would’ve come even if they said I couldn’t,” Bertuccelli added. “I’d would take doing chemo for the rest of the year to be here. He has supported me through all of this, and now it’s my turn to support him.”
Fueled by adrenaline, Bertuccelli has walked every hole that Pereira has played this week, from nine-hole practice rounds to Thursday’s first round, which saw Pereira go off in the last threesome off No. 1 before he carded a pair of birdies, at Nos. 3 and 6, and rolled in a handful of clutch mid-range putts to shoot 1-over 71.
When Pereira wrapped up his debut round at LACC’s par-4 finishing hole, it was quiet. The sun was starting to dip behind the sprawling, white clubhouse in the distance. The 48 chalets to the left were all empty, the right grandstand holding only about a dozen people. And as Pereira walked out of scoring, only three people were there to greet him.
They were, however, the only three people who mattered – his dad; mom, Cindy; and Leah. And they’d be there to root him on Friday morning as he battles to make the cut.
After the past year, such a challenge seems easy.
“Golf, it’s not anything like fighting for your life,” Pereira said. “Leah is fighting so hard every day, and the least I can do is show some effort in what I’m doing in my career. I’ve tried to match how hard she’s fought. … I’m just inspired by her day in and day out.”
Added John Pereira, tears building in his eyes: “We haven’t seen the best of Corey.”
On the golf course, that is.
Off it, he’s a major champion.