In brother's honor, coach champions cancer awareness

Lakewood Ranch’s Dave Frantz wasn’t so close to his brother, Will, during their childhood in Huntington, W. Va.

The pair only grew close later in life when golf became their bond. Will, a member of the PGA since 1974, became the head golf professional at Palm Aire Country Club in 1981 and maintained the position through 1992.

Dave, meanwhile, became an assistant golf pro at Palm Aire under his brother after graduating in 1982 from Marshall University.

They had great times together, even holding a “Caddyshack Open” in 1986. All 30 players who competed dressed as characters in the film. Will played the role of Ty Webb and Dave was Judge Smails’ grandson, Spaulding.

Eventually, Will moved west to Arizona while Dave stayed, becoming the head coach of Lakewood Ranch’s boys golf team in 1998. With almost an entire country between them, the two brothers stayed in each other’s lives as much as possible.

I wish I was writing a column about a pair of brothers who love golf, but I’m not.

In 2012, while in Arizona, Will first began feeling pain in his back. He believed the pain to be from years of playing and practicing golf. He didn’t see a doctor. Will wasn’t much of a “doctor person,” Dave said, like many men of Will’s generation. He figured, feeling otherwise healthy, that the pain would subside, and everything would be fine.

Everything would not be fine. After years of living with pain, Will moved back to Florida in 2016 and finally sought medical attention. He was diagnosed with stage 4 metastatic prostate cancer, meaning the cancer had spread to distant locations within the body. It was too late for treatment.

Will died March 25 at age 64.

“There are a lot of men out there who are more reluctant to see doctors than women,” said Dave, who is 57. “If you look at the numbers, one out of eight men are going to have prostate cancer, and many of them, like my brother, are going to die from it. It’s a prevailing cancer that a lot of men, for whatever reason, don’t go and get the monitoring they should.”

Will’s situation spurred Dave to get checked as well. In February, Dave received results from a prostate specific antigen test, and was told they were abnormal. He would need a radical prostatectomy to remove his prostate gland and some of the tissue around it. He was faced with a decision. He could have the surgery soon, or he could push it until the summer, when Dave, whose day job is teaching psychology at Lakewood Ranch High, is out of school.

Normally, the latter option would be reasonable thinking, but due to Will’s situation, Dave’s doctor recommended the surgery happen quickly. Dave decided to plan it for late April. The surgery was successful, and probably saved his life, Dave said.

“If I had waited until the summer, who knows (what would have happened)?” Dave said.

Will was a “no-frills guy,” Dave said, meaning he didn’t want a big memorial service. It wasn’t practical. Still, Dave felt an urge to do something, both in his brother’s memory and to raise awareness of prostate cancer. He decided to create the Will Frantz Memorial Scramble golf event, raising money for the Prostate Cancer Foundation.

Will played countless courses in his lifetime, but this event couldn’t be held just anywhere. It had to be at Palm Aire, the course that meant so much to him, that featured the “happiest times of his life,” Dave said.

The event was held on June 3, and was played by “Willsie Rules,” rules that Will typically invoked when he played. Everyone gets a mulligan on the first hole, pretty typical. Tees will be placed just in front of the markers, as Will (accidentally) did many a time. Most importantly, no one can talk to their golf balls while they are in motion on a green.

“You talked it out!” Will was famous for saying.

The event raised $6,000 for the Prostate Cancer Foundation, and Dave is leaving the event's Many Vs. Cancer page open in the hopes of raising an additional $5,000 there. Dave isn’t sure if the event will become an annual one, but he will continue raising money for prostate cancer research in one form or another, a noble cause.

“I feel a responsibility to not let it happen to anyone else,” Dave said. “I’m at peace. I couldn’t tell my brother what to do, but as a teacher and coach, I have some influence over many kids and golfers. I feel I should use that to try and help people.”