For most professional golf fans, the chances of having the opportunity to attend the most prestigious PGA Tour tournament are similar to winning the lottery.
But if everything goes well, a very special child of Prince Eduardo island may be attending the masters this time next year.
Maverick Bishop, eight, currently lives with his mother and his little sister in Toronto while waiting for a donor heart for a transplant.
Maverick has gone through some difficult moments in his young life, but he has not let that cushion his love for sports, including golf.
“From the moment he wakes up to the moment he lies, if he can have a ping-pong palette in his hand or a tennis racket … he loves sports,” said his father, Woody Bishop, said MANSTRET PEI Host Steve Bruce.
“Golf is one of those sports it can do, because it gets tired very easily. You can travel in a cart directly to your ball … without many limitations.”
The Masters, held every year in the National Golf course of Augusta in Georgia, is one of the four main PGA Tour championships. One of the most difficult professional golf tournaments is considered widely to win.
Maverick’s father, who is also the general manager of the Glasgow Hills Golf Field in New Glasgow, Pei, knows firsthand how difficult it is to see the tournament in person.
Fans have to put their names in a draw for tickets for the event every year. The club does not reveal how many people apply or how many passes are granted, but it is estimated that the chances of their name feeling for a single -day ticket is around 0.55 percent.
Bishop has requested years and never had luck, that is, until he won an unofficial lottery last week.
‘It’s emotional to even talk about that’
While traveling one night on social networks, he saw a publication of a Byeong-Hun, a 33-year-old South Korean golfer better known as Ben An, who currently held the 35th place in the PGA Tour and is in the Masters 2025 tournament this week.
“I have two weekly tickets for the masters. Like this tweet and telling their favorite golfist. I will announce two winners in exactly one hour from now on. Good luck,” he published on X, previously Twitter.
Bishop responded quickly with a photo of his favorite golfer, his son Maverick. Then he went to sleep.
“I woke up in the morning [and] My phone had 254 notifications, “he said.
It turned out that AN publication had understood as an April Fools joke. But after reading the Bishop publication, the golfer decided to organize two practice round tickets for Maverick and his father.
Bishop then communicated with a private message through ensuring that the offer was legitimate. It turns out that it was.
While Bishop was touched by the offer, the only problem was Maverick’s ability to travel. He has been on the list of transplants since last September, and the call that there is a new heart for him could come at any time.
Then Bishop told An and that they would have to decline.
One said he understood, but then extended his offer so that the father and son attend the teachers in 2026, telling Bishop as a sign of faith that Maverick will need a strong heart to walk through the course.
“It’s emotional to even talk about that,” Bishop said about the offer. “There is nothing easy in what we are happening, but when you have something that can raise your mood like [being named] Honor of the Isleños of Charlottetown or a trip to Augusta … those are some quite large motivating things that we can use during difficult times. ”
While the 8 -year -old Maverick Bishop waiting in Toronto with his mother and his little sister for a donor heart to be available, the PEI family is asking the provincial government to change the rules on organ donations. At this time, you must be 16 years or older to register to donate organs if something happens to you. Maverick’s family wants to see that age fall. Laura Meader of CBC has the story.
But when you get to that, more important than seeing their favorite golfers in the greens and the streets of Augusta National at this time is to find Maverick the perfect heart.
Bishop said the family will continue waiting for that to happen soon.
“We are willing to wait all the time we have to get the right heart for Maverick,” he said. “I hope that day comes.”
