At the Silverado Resort’s North Course in Napa, the world’s biggest names in golf, Scottie Scheffler, Collin Morikawa, and the Ryder Cup heroes among them, are teeing off this week at the Procore Championship. But in a quiet moment before sunrise, as autumn draws an early curtain across the vineyard hills, PGA Tour hopeful Corey Pereira stands alone and hears only the voice in his heart.

On the Monday Q Info, the PGA Tour pro shared a truth that carried more weight than any leaderboard number: the remembrance of his late girlfriend, Leah Bertuccelli. “You know, and to be honest, Ryan, like today we had some tough moments. Leah and I got engaged in Napa in December of last year. So, you know, this being here brings a lot of emotions. And yeah, I mean, she’s been with me for everything. I mean, she was here in December for the Asher Tour event at Silverado, and that’s when I proposed to her. She’s been with me throughout my career. And the first person I call and yeah, it’s emotional to pick up the phone and be ready to dial a number and that person’s not alive. I mean, it’s a pretty crazy thing.”

The depth of the 30-year-old’s words was heavier than anything a packed fairway could deliver. Pereira wasn’t just talking about golf; he was talking about life, loss, and how love lingers even when it can no longer answer the phone. Only later does the scoreboard enter the story. On September 8, Pereira fired a 7-under 65 at Silverado’s North Course, tying former U.S. Open champion Jason Dufner, Sangha Park, and Jim Knous for low-medalist honors in the Procore Championship qualifier.

On Instagram, Pereira tried to capture the balance between grief and gratitude: “PGA tour bound this week at the Procore Championship! As difficult as life is these days, I am happy to have the opportunity to do what I love on the biggest stage. Hope to see plenty of local fans this week at Silverado!” That post reminded fans that this is more than just another Monday qualifier success. It’s a moment stitched with personal history, played out on the very grounds where he once dropped to one knee and asked Leah to be his wife.

The result didn’t just punch his ticket into the $6 million PGA Tour event; it put him alongside Ryder Cup stars like Scheffler, Morikawa, Patrick Cantlay, and Justin Thomas. For Pereira, though, it wasn’t about who he would be paired with. It was about who he carried with him. As he walks Silverado’s fairways this week, every swing will carry echoes of Leah; the moments they shared, the future they planned, and the love that remains as present as ever. He may chase birdies and leaderboard position, but the truest victory is already in hand: honoring her by living their dream on golf’s grandest stage.

For Pereira, this week is about far more than fairways and birdies. His journey reflects a larger truth in sports: that behind every scorecard are struggles unseen. The solitude of golf can magnify those battles, and Pereira’s story now joins a wider conversation about how athletes confront grief, illness, and mental strain while still chasing their dreams.

Dealing with mental health and grief in Golf

Golf is often described as a lonely sport. A player stands over the ball with no teammates to lean on, no substitutions, no timeouts. But the solitude becomes even heavier when athletes carry personal grief into competition. Corey Pereira’s story is not just about earning a start at Silverado; it is about how athletes find ways to keep performing while life delivers its hardest blows. Pereira himself has already endured more than most in his 20s.

Later, when his fiancée Leah was diagnosed with cancer, he stepped away from professional golf for six months to be at her side. That break wasn’t about lost time; it was about choosing what mattered most. “Golf will always be there,” he said in an earlier interview, “but she needed me then more than ever.” This willingness to pause a career for love and family echoes through the game’s history. Camilo Villegas lost his daughter Mia to brain cancer in 2020, returning to the PGA Tour one month later, with fresh scars but also a deeper sense of perspective.

Jarrod Lyle, beloved by fans and peers, fought leukemia multiple times before his passing in 2018 at age 36, inspiring the ‘Leuk the Duck’ campaign that still raises awareness today. Their struggles highlighted something fans often forget: athletes are human long before they are competitors. Pereira now joins that conversation of resilience. Every time he tees it up, he is not just a golfer but a man carrying memories, grief, and love onto the course.

His story reminds us that while birdies and trophies make headlines, it is the human strength behind the swings that leaves the longest impact. In this way, Pereira’s presence at Silverado is not just a qualifier’s triumph; it is a symbol of endurance, of vulnerability, and of the courage to keep going even when the one person you want to call is no longer there.