There aren’t many occasions where you’d have the inclination to utter the phrase “wow, that is one tough golfer,” but Erik Compton is giving us a few reasons to do just that. Compton looks like a pretty average guy, but the fact that he’s playing in the PGA’s Honda Classic this week is downright miraculous.

You see, the 29-year-old Compton is on his third heart. Yeah, third. He had his first heart transplant when he was 12. He then had a major heart attack in 2007, but was able to drive himself to the hospital. That’s right, he drove himself to the hospital after experiencing a major heart attack. After another transplant last May he’s back in the game. And while he’ll never be able to hit the ball like he used to, he wants to show the world that transplant recipients can still do the things the rest of us can.

Compton has never been a regular on the PGA Tour, but he did win the Order of Merit on the Canadian Tour in 2004, so he’s not just some weekend hacker getting a chance to live the dream because of his ailment. Amazingly, he made it to the second round of the PGA Tour’s Q School last year, just a few months after his second transplant.

And his 2009 debut, which is on a sponsor’s exemption, comes just two weeks after the birth of his daughter. DEVIL BALL GOLF alerted us to the story:

Compton has permission to use a cart if he wants to, but he’s trying hard to avoid that. The entire golf experience drives him, not just getting out on the course. And while he’s lost much of his power off the tee — by some estimates, 30 to 40 yards — he’s still so devoted to the game that friends and family want him to slow down.

Compton is very serious about avoiding the use of the cart if at all necessary, as he doesn’t want to be any different than the other golfers on the course (and if he does use one I hope there isn’t a bunch of whining from the pros about it, i.e. the Casey Martin situation from a few years back). To him, just being able to walk his rounds is as important as the score he shoots (from PGA.com):

“For me to be able to walk four days is part of a separate goal,” Compton said. “For me, being able to walk four days and play coming down Sunday is a huge accomplishment … but I might not perform as well if I was in a cart.”

This week, to him, that simply doesn’t matter.

“It’s been a goal of mine to get back and play and walk,” Compton said. “It’s going to be a good week. With the birth of our daughter, it’s been a pretty tiring week, but hopefully somewhere in the mix I can play a little golf.”

I have to admit, I didn’t know that heart transplant recipients could do anything even remotely strenuous. And while golf isn’t rugby, it’s a whole lot more active than sitting around on a couch eating cheez doodles.

Compton still faces an uncertain road ahead. The 5-year survival rate for males receiving a heart transplant is about 72%, but he’s lived 17 years on two different hearts. And while it’s understandable that his family wants him to take it easy, it’s also understandable that he wants to live his dream now, because he’ll never know when this heart is going to give out.

It all makes Tiger’s return from knee surgery seem a bit pedestrian, eh?