Lake Buena Vista, FL – After barely making it through the second round of the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals Classic on Friday, Charlie Beljan spent the night in the hospital going through a variety of tests.
Beljan battled through an elevated heart rate and shortness of breath en route to an 8-under 64 on Friday. That was good enough to give him a 3-stroke lead after 36 holes of the event.
The 28-year-old sought medical treatment several times on Friday, including once on the driving range before the round even started.
Driving him to keep playing is the fact that Beljan stands 139th on the money list, and only the top 125 will keep their PGA tour cards for next year.
"The end result of all the tests (blood work, CAT scan and X-Rays) was that they thought everything was OK and that's why I'm here today," Beljan told Golf Channel when he arrived at the course Saturday morning.
"Still not feeling that great, but shoot, the position I'm in, it's kind of hard not to show up. An hour of sleep and will give it a whirl."
Beljan struggled with his health so much in round two that he asked his caddie at one point if he was even going to make the cut.
Little did he know, he was actually leading the tournament at the time.
"They released me this morning ... saying that I was good enough, maybe not to go play golf, but at least to leave the hospital," Beljan said on TV. "I'm making the decision to come out here and play. Who knows if we'll last two holes, who knows if we'll last 18 holes? We're just gonna take it one shot at a time, which I did yesterday and the end result was pretty good. A little nerve-wracking coming out here, though."
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