Sun Is Not Harmless Anymore -- Golfers Risk Skin Cancer

The sun.

Our source of warmth. It makes snow melt, plants grow and people smile. For years, the sun was good. It was a happy face looking down on our good Earth.

We have learned painfully about another side of the sun. It also is the ball of fire in the sky. It parches grass, blisters house paint and dries wetlands. It burns and poisons our skin.

The sun can kill. Skin cancer is now the world's most common form of cancer.

In a more innocent time, we worshiped the sun. We worked on our tans and wanted a healthy glow. The golf course was one place we went to get some sun after a winter indoors. Now we are paying for it.

Twenty years ago, little attention was paid to the damage the sun could do to golfers. Spending a day in the sun was just another positive about playing golf. Sunburn was just a painful inconvenience. A golfer's tan became a badge of honor.

"When I was a kid, you weren't even considered a real man unless you lost your nose three or four times a summer," said PGA Tour star Tom Kite, who, when growing up in Austin, Texas, lived for the sun.

New research shows that at least 1 million new cases of skin cancer will develop in the U.S. this year, an increase of about 300,000. At least 32,000 of those new cases will be malignant melanoma, the most deadly form of cancer. Many of those new patients will be golfers.

The sun is part of a day at the office for professional golfers. In the years before sunscreen and skin-care consciousness, the rays did more than tan players like Kite, Andy North, Beth Daniel, Robin Walton, J.C. Snead, Bob Murphy, Butch Baird and many others. It fried their skin. That "healthy tan" led to cancerous growths that have had to be removed.

Recent medical findings have forced the PGA Tour and the LPGA to address the problem and educate players about the dangers of being out in the sun. Jamie MacDougall of Huntington Beach, Calif., the PGA Tour's dermatologist, makes several visits a year to the regular and senior tours to check players.

"Everyone should use sunscreen and get checked out," MacDougall said. "You don't remember every minute you spent in the sun, but your skin does."

Said Murphy: "I go to the doctor at least every six months, normally every four months. I constantly have spots, so it has to be addressed. It's something that can't be denied."