Charity foundation supporting golfers with heart conditions sends Pendletonian to Florida
PENDLETON — Casey VanDorn, an 18-year-old from Pendleton, is set to tee off on one of the most challenging golf courses in the country.
“I’m looking forward to playing a tough course that tour players play, that you really don’t get experience in a lifetime,” he said. “There’s less room for mistakes, probably a lot tighter fairways, a little bit more shot shaping than usual. Probably more water than here.”
Sports are a big part of VanDorn’s life. He’s a competitor on the Blue Mountain Community College golf team — after playing for Pendleton High School — and plays in a recreational hockey league.
However, VanDorn has to be careful when it comes to contact sports because of his health, which limits his athletic opportunities. VanDorn was diagnosed before birth with hypoplastic left heart syndrome, a condition in which the left side of the heart is underdeveloped and can’t properly pump blood to the body.
While his heart may make some parts of his life more challenging, it has also opened up the opportunity to play golf at a top course through the nonprofit Round of a Lifetime Foundation. The nonprofit organization sends people with congenital heart conditions to courses around the world at no cost in honor of Andrew Maciey, a lover of golf who died of familial dilated cardiomyopathy in 2010, at age 24.
All about heart health
VanDorn underwent two open heart surgeries by the time he was six because of his heart condition. The second, he remembers, left him in the hospital for nearly two months. A memory that stands out is of one of his nurses’ sons who participated in competitive goose calling.
“I remember they wanted me to open my airways, so I would blow on a goose call or duck call,” VanDorn said, “and then the guy, her son, brought in this big stuffed goose, and it’s still in my room today.”
According to the Cleveland Clinic, about one in 3,800 babies in the United States are born with hypoplastic left heart syndrome each year. The condition accounts for around 2-3% of all congenital heart diseases and often requires multiple surgeries.
Despite the risks and limitations, VanDorn keeps a positive attitude.
“I see it more as a positive thing, honestly,” he said. “It kind of teaches me to go a little bit further. I pretty much can do anything I want to except play really physical sports, like wrestling, football or other hard contact sports.”
Hockey falls into the contact category, he said, but playing for a casual league limits checks and the more high-contact parts of the game. His commitment to living a so-called normal life was one of the qualities that made him stand out as an applicant for Round of a Lifetime.
“He’s someone that his congenital heart defect has obviously impacted him a great deal, but he hasn’t really let that define him and he’s been able to persevere,” said Dan Igo, Round of a Lifetime’s secretary and director of content, “and then also be an advocate for others who are suffering from similar defects.”
The American Heart Association awarded VanDorn with the Young Heart Leadership Award in September 2024 for his contribution to the association’s Kids Heart Challenge. VanDorn and his family raised more than $23,000 across about 12 years for the challenge.
“I want to help people just like me or people that have the same heart conditions, but have them worse off, and help them try to get better as well,” VanDorn said of his fundraising efforts.
A heart for golf
VanDorn found out about six months ago that he was selected as the 22nd recipient of the Round of a Lifetime trip. He said he was shocked when he found out he’d been picked.
“It’s going to be a fun experience,” he said.
The event is Friday, Sept. 26. VanDorn will play two courses at PGA National in Florida, the Champion and the Palmer, during his all-expenses-paid trip. Igo, with the foundation, said VanDorn is the first to play two rounds for free on a world-class course.
“Usually it’s just one round, but as the foundation has grown,” Igo said, “we’ve been able to get some access to courses where, on our end, it’s not as expensive as it was early on when we were basically paying out of pocket for everything.”
VanDorn will travel to PGA National with his parents and a friend for a little under a week, spending two days golfing and one day at PopStroke in Palm Beach, which he described as “mini golf on steroids.”
For Igo, the value of the trip is more than just an opportunity to play golf somewhere amazing.
“We’re hoping that on these trips, you’re on the course, you’re with your loved ones, and then this is something you can talk about for the rest of your life as kind of a core memory,” he said.
Golf always has been a core memory for VanDorn. Whenever he plays, he thinks of the person who first introduced him to the game: his grandfather.
VanDorn was only 4 when he first stepped onto the green at Wildhorse Golf Course holding child-size clubs. He and his grandfather would play together and then eat together before little VanDorn returned home.
His grandfather died when he was in middle school, he said.
“I pretty much play almost every round for him, almost every time,” he said. “That’s my real life goal: to play well for him.”
As he prepares to play his Round of a Lifetime, VanDorn will remember his grandfather and the times they spent together treating the local course like it was, well, the PGA National.
