NCGA alumnus and Cameron Park native Corey Pereira missed the cut at the U.S. Open in June, but it didn’t really matter.
For the now 28-year-old Pereira, who represented the NCGA at the 2015 Pacific Coast Amateur, and his longtime girlfriend Leah Bertuccelli, it was all about getting to share the moment.
Last fall, Bertuccelli was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, an aggressive soft-tissue cancer that normally strikes children. The odds for a 20-something adult contracting the illness, doctors told her, were “like, one in a couple hundred million.”
It can spread quickly. “I was lucky, if I can say it like that, because it was scary. But it was in a place where it was noticeable almost right away,” Bertuccelli, 26, told Golf Digest. “I had no symptoms. I didn’t feel sick. You find yourself thinking that this [illness] is a part of life, but you didn’t think it would be a part of your life at this age.”
In support of Bertuccelli, Pereira, previously a Korn Ferry Tour member who had lost his card, opted to skip Q-School and shelved his clubs for a year.
“It’s been really hard on her. It’s so hard on your body. It just wipes her out,” Pereira said. ““She got the flu one time and that was a pretty big emergency.”
During the U.S. Open, Bertuccelli was supposed to be at Stanford for the last of her five-day chemo treatments. She instead was at Los Angeles C.C., this time supporting Pereira.
“For him to drop everything to take 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.”
The feelings are mutual.
“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.”