Life is rolling along swimmingly. A late January trip to the PGA Show in Orlando is followed by some time to do a little rehab work at your winter place in Boynton Beach.
Golf. Pickleball. More golf. Plenty of sun. Great R&R. It’s all part of the winter break and when you arrive back in New England in early March for a routine colonoscopy before getting your golf club up and running, “I’m thinking, ‘I’m living my best life,’ ” said Chris Hulme.
Next thing he knows, Hulme wakes up after the anesthesia and is greeted with this from his doctor: “Sorry to tell you, but you’re 100 percent positive for colon cancer.”
One hundred percent? Great time to be perfect.
“It doesn’t matter how you prepare yourself because you can’t be prepared to hear those words,” said Hulme. “You never think it’s going to be us.”
It was the spring of 2022 and Chris and his wife, Michelle, didn’t waste any time. Correct that, Michelle Hulme jumped into action.
“We both shed a tear or two, but (Michelle) immediately took the bull by the horn and wrangled like no other cowgirl,” said Chris. “She was my rock, my friend, my shrink, my motivator, and my biggest cheerleader when I was down and out.”
We interrupt this story to offer a little background on Chris Hulme, a native of Cumberland, R.I., whose passion is golf, for as far back as he can remember. He ran with a golf-happy crowd, too – the Adamonis boys, Dave Jr. and Brad, and Jeff Dantas among them.
“There were about 12 of us,” said Dave Adamonis Jr., “and we’d play this little course in Attleboro (Mass.), Chemawa. Nine holes and we’d go round and round.”
Hulme played collegiately at Central Connecticut and for years he’s been one of the most respected PGA professionals within the New England PGA. “Consummate professional,” said Adamonis. “He’s so respected.”
For six years Jason Malcolm served as Hulme’s assistant at Whitinsville GC, a widely-respected nine-holer. “Years I will never forget,” said Malcolm, the head coach of the men’s and women’s golf teams at Merrimack.
“Chris has been a major influence on my golf career. Despite his battle with cancer he has remained positive as ever. He’s resilient to stay strong and play great tournament golf.”
Six years ago, Hulme was hired at Newport National Golf Club in Middletown, R.I., and to receive enormous support from his owner and members has made Hulme’s gut-wrenching ride exponentially easier on the emotions.
And let the record show, the ride at the beginning for Hulme was excruciating. After his colonoscopy and being told of the “100%” cancer diagnosis, there was one piece of bad news after another and weeks in the hospital.
“I never knew if I was going to get out,” he said. “But I decided there were two routes I could go. One, I could get down in the doldrums and isolate myself. Or two, I could spend whatever time I had and make it the best time . . . and that’s the way I wanted to go.”
Hulme always knew the joy of birdies and the struggle to avoid bogeys. He knew the golf language but soon he learned about ileus, ileostomy, and lymph nodes.
His colon cancer required surgery but it was anything but routine. Truth is, Hulme spent nearly the entire month of April 2022 in the hospital with Michelle by his side and the ups and downs were wild, starting with the news that his body went into ileus right after the colon surgery.
“This is a term used when your digestive tract stops working and the bile in your stomach keeps producing toxins,” said Hulme.
The ordeal continued with bad news after bad news. Hulme developed a small leak and an infection. Not only did he have to do chemo but he had to wear the dreaded colostomy bag. “A double whammy,” he said. “Am I ever going to get out of this place?”
Next, Chris and Michelle were told that his cancer was now at Stage 3; it had had spread to six of 42 lymph nodes. An ileostomy was performed, he wore tubes, more surgeries were performed and by the time Hulme was told things were stabilized, he had been in the hospital 27 days.
“I felt like it was an eternity.”
To think, going back to that cool R&R excursion to Florida at the start of all this, “there were no cancer symptoms” and Hulme felt as well as he ever had. But what he and Michelle constantly do is not dwell on the miserable stretch in March and April of 2022, but cherish the “guardian angels” of Dana Farber and Brigham & Women’s who have helped him have such a clean stretch.
“I’ll never be able to ring the bell,” he said. “I’ll never be cancer-free or in remission because of the cancer I have, but I am now through my first year of recovery. I have had four CT scans this past year and everything seems to be copacetic,” said Hulme.
“But he’s a tough bugger. If there’s anyone who can beat this, it’s him,” said Adamonis. “He’s always had a big heart.”
Yes, Hulme prays that he remains cancer-free, but from Day 1 of this ordeal what has always helped him maintain his sanity is his love of golf and his job.
Barely had he been released from the hospital in the spring of ’22 when he returned to his post at Newport National. He maintained a steady work load all of that year and into ’23 and he’s ready for the ’24 season.
“I never missed a day of work, not one. The members and the owner at Newport National were incredible.
“I couldn’t sit at home. I had to be at work. I played golf through treatments,” he said. “My life was never on hold.”
