Brendan Valdes is back on the course after a grueling battle with cancer

The first thing Brendan Valdes remembers is the shock.

A nine-centimeter tumor sat right in the middle of his chest, pressing against his heart and lung.

For Valdes, 23, the diagnosis on Jan. 1 came as a devastating surprise. He had always considered himself healthy. Life, only weeks earlier, seemed to be moving exactly the way he had hoped. But as he put it, in a social media post, “Life, like golf, is often unpredictable.”

He was preparing for a second season on the Korn Ferry Tour. A few days before Christmas, he had gotten engaged to his girlfriend, Rachel Gourley. Then a cold changed everything.

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What initially felt like a minor illness quickly worsened. Valdes began coughing up small amounts of blood, eventually sending him to an emergency room in Orlando on New Year’s Day.

At first, doctors thought he had a bad case of bronchitis. Further testing revealed that mass in the middle of his chest. Valdes was diagnosed with primary mediastinal lymphoma.

“We never would’ve found it without that,” said Valdes, speaking Tuesday ahead of the Biltmore Championship Asheville, of what seemed like a mild illness. “It might have been too late at that point in time, so I truthfully got a little bit lucky that we found it as early as we did.”

The months that followed had little to do with golf. Valdes underwent chemotherapy, and the treatment took a physical toll that went far beyond anything he had experienced on a golf course.

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“I actually gained about 30 pounds during the process,” he said. “None of it was muscle. That’s for sure.”

There were days when simply walking to the mailbox felt like an accomplishment. Then came one of the lowest points of the battle: a collapsed lung, pneumonia and a hole in his lung — all while he was still undergoing chemotherapy.

Golf became an afterthought. Valdes, a three-time All-American at Auburn who helped lead the Tigers to the 2024 NCAA Championship, went more than six months without touching a club. But even during the hardest days, the game was never completely out of sight. His caddie and friend, Tiago Barni, regularly checked in on him. As detailed on Golf Channel.com, Barni also made Valdes a promise. Once Valdes was healthy enough to return to the course, Barni wanted to be the first person to play him in a match.

“That is my best chance to beat you,” Barni told him.

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By May, Valdes was nearing the end of treatment. He received his final dose of chemotherapy on May 15. In early June, after a PET scan showed no evidence of cancer, Valdes was ringing the bell.

The next challenge was figuring out how to become a golfer again. He was cancer-free but recovery did not happen overnight. It took months before Valdes felt capable of walking 18 holes without getting winded. But eventually, he was ready to test himself. In late June, he and Barni finally played their match at Isleworth Golf and Country Club outside Orlando. Valdes had not touched a club in more than six months. From the tips, he shot 3-under 69.

“He did not beat me,” Valdes said.