With two years complete at Durango High School, then-junior golfer Cory Gillespie was cruising along toward his dream. He had already been to the Colorado High School Activities Association’s Class 4A State Golf Championships his freshman and sophomore years and was well on his way to the NCAA Division I scholarship he’d been working so hard to obtain.
As it often happens in golf, one shot changed everything.
“I hit the ball in a bush and I thought I could hack it out,” Gillespie said. “I swung as hard as I could, and I hit down into the root. My club stopped, but the rest of my arm kept going.”
He didn’t know at the time, but the result of that swing was a dislocated elbow and ligament damage in his arm. With the pressure of college weighing on him, Gillespie decided to play through the injury. He changed his swing so he could hit the ball without pain, and his pure talent guided him to another state tournament with one properly functioning arm.
“I kept my average in the 70s, but it just wasn’t good enough,” he said. “I wasn’t getting any better like that.”
Eventually, the injury couldn’t be ignored any longer. Doctors performed an unconventional Tommy John type of elbow surgery to repair his ulnar collateral ligament before another operation was required to repair more damage in the months that followed.
If the elbow problems weren’t enough, Gillespie also battles epilepsy. He thought the seizures he suffered as a child were long gone, but they started happening again in his sleep.
With the deck stacked against him, Gillespie wasn’t about to abandon his lifelong friends and golf buddies that made up the Demons team. The four seniors had won two consecutive regional titles and were laser focused on winning their third. His perseverence earned him The Durango Herald Male Comeback Player of the Year.
“By his standards, I think he’d tell you he played some pretty bad golf,” Durango head coach Kirk Rawles said. “But he kept plugging and grinding. He struggled, but he posted good enough scores to contribute. He was our rock for the previous three years, so I know it was hard for him.”
Eric Walker was critical to his recovery and participation. Walker roomed with Gillespie on road trips and kept an eye on his buddy.
“Eric has been my friend since before kindergarten,” said Gillespie, son of Jackie and Tracey Gillespie. “He knows me about as good as anyone. I trusted him, and that was important for me and definitely important for my mom.”
The Demons stepped up and found themselves in the mix for the regional title once again. The lefty grinded his way to shoot a disappointing 88 at the regional tournament but got a second chance.
A playoff was needed to decide the state qualifiers, and Gillespie was called upon to bring it home. He made a five-foot birdie putt, his only birdie of the day, to help win the third consecutive regional title. The putt also sent Gillespie to the state tournament for the fourth time in four years.
“Cory was so supportive all season and kept being positive though we all knew how frustrated he was,” Rawles said. “He never let it show, and, when we needed him, he came through huge for us.”
Gillespie didn’t get the Division I offer he had hoped for, but he will play collegiate golf next season at College of the Canyons in Santa Clarita, California.
“Playing college golf has been a dream of mine since elementary school,” he said. “When I’m not in school, I get to play golf and travel to different places. That’s the coolest thing in the world.”
jfries@durangoherald.com
