PHOTO - Dave Winder, MSU Athletics
A combination of Cystic Fibrosis and Covid-19 have made life tough for Murray State men’s golf senior, Austin Knight, since March 2020. Now into the fall semester at MSU, Knight is clad to be back to playing the game he loves and is looking forward to competing with his team in the spring season of 2021.
Knight, a senior out of Hopkinsville, Kentucky, has lived with Cystic Fibrosis his entire life but has never let it get him down. Cystic Fibrosis is a disease that attacks the lungs and digestive system. These preexisting conditions combined with a pandemic created even more caution for Knight and his daily battle for his health. He has a daily regimen of medicine and breathing treatments he takes in the morning and at night. Shutting down and staying home wasn’t easy, but it had to be done.
“My parents have always treated me like a normal kid and I’ve done normal things, but they were really strict about this because they knew Covid-19 could be bad for me,” Knight said. “Obviously, my disease (Cystic Fibrosis) is bad on the lungs and Pulmonary function. My parents kept me isolated because if I got this virus, it might kill me.”
While Knight was going crazy being indoors, he did get outside eventually to mow the yard and play some golf.
“After six weeks, I could go out and hit some balls,” Knight said. “Two months after this started, I was able to play a round of golf. I had restrictions that slowly were lifted. It’s just family love, my parents trying to keep me safe. Then we came back to school and plus I am student teaching this semester. Nobody knows when this is going away, but I’m taking it day by day, just taking the precautions that I can, but that was one of the toughest times of my life when I couldn’t play golf.”
The Murray State men’s golf season was well underway when the pandemic shut it down on March 11. Knight and the Racers had played two events, at the Loyola Intercollegiate (Feb. 22-24) in Goodyear, Arizona and the Gulf Coast Collegiate (March 2-3) in Diamondhead, Mississippi. Knight was the Racers’ leader, with a scoring average of 75.5 in 20 rounds and he had posted a team-leading 11 rounds of par or better. Knight was 11th in the Ohio Valley Conference in scoring.
Knight was disappointed when the fall season was canceled, but brighter days are ahead in the spring season.
“Just knowing that we are going to play a spring season makes me very excited to be able to end my career at Murray State in a big way, both from a team and individual aspect,” Knight said. “Our team was having one of the best seasons we have had since I’ve been here and do think the spring is going to be big for us.”
— Story and photo by Dave Winder, Murray State Athletics
