Golf: Hanging on to Dusty

Richard Dunn

NEWPORT BEACH - Little Dusty Brandom didn’t fully understand why

everyone was gathered at one site to play in a golf tournament.

As Dusty cruised along the course Monday at Newport Beach Country Club

with his mother in a specialized golf cart designed to look like a

Humvee, he watched as his friend, 7-year-old Tanner Trauthen, played in

the inaugural charity event to raise funds for research into Duchenne

Muscular Dystrophy.

Dusty, 7, who suffers from DMD, took the day off from school at Carden

Hall in Newport Beach to hang out with his buddy and about 120 other

golfers in the event organized by his parents, Neil and Catherine

Brandom, who learned of Dusty’s disease a year ago and have been hustling

to help find a cure ever since.

“We went to a Parent Project meeting in September, and realized we could

do something, so we planned this golf tournament,” said Cath. “We had

never organized anything before.

“Duchenne is one of 42 different types of muscular dystrophy and it only

affects boys. It is a fatal disease and children usually survive into

their teens, and there is no cure. These boys get weaker and it affects

their heart. They just die. It affects every muscle in the body.”

Monday, the Brandom’s expected to raise $100,000 for DMD with mostly

private donations.

“Most first-year golf tournaments are negative (in profit returns), but

we are going to make money for DMD without any big sponsor,” said friend

Troy Mikulka, who helped the Brandom’s organize the event.

Dusty, the oldest of three siblings, looks and acts like a normal kid,

but his muscle cells are deteriorating because of a faulty gene. His

enthusiasm for life masks his weakening muscles. He has known his close

friend, Tanner, for about four years.

“Tanner’s my good buddy -- I think it’s neat that he’s playing golf,”

Dusty said. “I can putt, but Tanner can really hit the ball.”

The tournament included a celebrity foursome of actors Richard Karn (“Al”

from the television show “Home Improvement”), Mickey Jones (“Tin Cup” and

“Sling Blade”), Mark McClure (Jimmy Olsen in the “Superman” films) and

actor/writer/director James Hampton (“The Longest Yard” and “Teen Wolf”).

Heavyweight boxer Francois Botha (Newport Beach), who has fought Mike

Tyson and Shannon Briggs and is hoping to fight Lennox Lewis on July 15,

also teed it up for Dusty.

The event featured an Australian themed barbecue awards dinner after the

charity tournament with the “Surftones” band as entertainment. The

Brandom’s are from Australia and have lived in Newport Beach for five

years.

“We’re here to stay,” said Neil Brandom, a real estate developer. “My

wife and I both came to study at Cal State Fullerton, and we just stayed

on. Newport Beach is the kind of place where you like to stay and raise a

family.”

The Brandom’s, after seeing their oldest son having trouble running and

climbing stairs, were twice told by doctors that Dusty was slow

developing and would grow out of his physical shortcomings. But when

their 5-year-old son, Luke, began doing things Dusty was unable to do,

they insisted on further testing and found out it was DMD.

“That’s why we’re here, to help find a cure or strong treatment for this

disease,” Neil said. “We obviously have a vested interest ... our son has

the disease.”