Chile’s Niemann wins by 6 shots at The Greenbrier

We know Tiger Woods is playing with Peyton Manning against Phil Mickelson and Tom Brady later this month. After that? He’s not telling. We look at all the possibilities for him when golf resumes.

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Headed into what was scheduled to be this week’s Valero Texas Open, Charley Hoffman would have been armed with the best tool for success – a strong history in San Antonio. Last year’s bogey-free, 5-under 67 Sunday at TPC San Antonio was good for solo-second, his sixth top-10 finish in 14 starts in the event. Hoffman won the Valero Texas Open in 2016. But, rather than being poised for another solid finish on one of the TOUR’s most challenging layouts, like everyone else in the world, Hoffman is home and wondering what’s next. While he and wife, Stacy, don’t have all the answers for their two young daughters, they do have the resources to give back to a community in need. And, through the Charley Hoffman Foundation, they also do have Texas-sized hearts. Via video message, Charley, Stacy and their daughters recently announced a donation of $25,000 from the Charley Hoffman Foundation to the Valero Texas Open. The funds will be distributed by the tournament to a variety of area charities at their discretion. “It was important to give to the Valero Texas Open because we understand that without PGA TOUR events, the tournaments just don’t have the ability for the same community outreach from a financial standpoint,� Charley said. “Stacy and I looked back at what is one of our favorite tournaments of the year, the Valero Texas Open, and thought about how we could help the community of San Antonio.� “We thought it was right to give to the Valero Texas Open not only because Charley has had so much success there, but also because the tournament has been a big supporter of the Charley Hoffman Foundation,� said Stacy. “That means a lot for them to take note of what we’re doing with our foundation.� In its 11 years of existence, the Charley Hoffman Foundation has generated more than $1.8 million. In their hometown of San Diego, the foundation supports cystic fibrosis, San Diego Junior Golf & Pro Kids Golf as main charities. “To have the funds available to give back is something Stacy and I are so grateful for,� Charley said. “And, when something unusual like this pandemic comes along, it means a lot to us to be able to draw from funds we have in the foundation.� “We really are so pleased that the Charley Hoffman Foundation is able to help other organizations and charities through this really hard time,� Stacy said. “We understand that it’s hard for charities that try to support those who need extra help throughout the year.� So, in a time of uncertainty, Stacy knew it would be even harder for those who need more during this challenging time. And, the charities themselves may actually begin with less to give back. “It’s said that everything’s bigger in Texas, and the Valero Texas Open has always given a really big amount back to their San Antonio community,� Stacy said. “It was really important for Charley and I to give back, because we knew they could be missing out on a lot of charity dollars this year. We thought we could at least help a little bit with some of those charities that really rely on those funds.� “In my opinion, the Valero Texas Open is a major standout among TOUR events when it comes to giving back to the community year after year,� Charley said. “It seems like the Valero Texas Open gives more to charity than almost every event on TOUR. I think that’s amazing.� Thanks to a healthy Charley Hoffman Foundation, a reserve had built up enough to where the couple could make the donation. Charley and Stacy are hoping to give an even larger amount back to their San Diego charities next year, typically announced during the Farmers Insurance Open at Torrey Pines each January. “We’re proud to be able to help people when the help is needed,� Charley said. “All along, that’s the vision Stacy and I had of this foundation – to be able to help people. “I always say that I dreamed of playing on the PGA TOUR and winning tournaments like the Valero Texas Open. But, I could have never dreamed that we would be able to give back to the communities in which we live and play golf tournaments. I get chills just thinking about it all the time.�

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Forget Disneyland. What does the Super Bowl MVP know, anyway? When Chesson Hadley was asked how he was going to celebrate after winning the Albertsons Boise Open in 2017 to lock up his PGA TOUR card, he knew exactly what to say. “We’re going to wine country,” Hadley told the interviewer from the Golf Channel, reiterating a promise he had made to his wife Amanda. Then he even named the vineyards he wanted to visit – Alpha Omega, Frank Family and Far Niente. Robin Baggett, an avid golfer who owns Alpha Omega with his wife Michelle, was watching on TV, and it wasn’t long before their phones started blowing up with text messages from people who had seen the shout out. And Michelle – “I’m a planner,” she says – leapt into action. She reached out to friends at the other two vineyards and then contacted Hadley on social media. Later, she sent him and Amanda a lengthy email with restaurant and hotel recommendations and set up visits to wineries when they came to Napa a week later. “They didn’t know us from Adam,” Amanda says. “… She’s like the most hospitable person I’ve ever met in my life. She basically planned our whole trip.” The two couples got together that week, and a fast friendship was formed. The Hadleys have spent time at the Baggett’s homes in Pebble Beach and Lake Tahoe, and they are staying with them this week in the Napa Valley while Hadley plays in the Fortinet Championship. “They’re awesome people,” Hadley says. “They have become great friends of ours.” “A great relationship formed,” Michelle Baggett agrees. “I mean, we both have the same faith and the same values, and we both are very philanthropic with children’s causes.” And when Hadley won the weekly Birdies Fore Love competition at the PGA TOUR’s season-opener at Silverado Resort last year, he suddenly had $50,000 to donate to charity thanks to RSM. The competition lasts throughout the fall and the overall winner receives $300,000 to give to the charity of his choice. “That’s just one thing that’s so cool about the PGA TOUR and some of our partners and sponsors is that there’s stuff like this that we can do to give back and impact people,” Hadley says. “It’s really cool that have the ability to do that.” He and Amanda decided to divide the donation. They knew they wanted to leave some of the money in the Napa Valley, a place they both love, the place where the tournament is played and a place that has suffered mightily in recent years from the raging wildfires in California. So again, they turned to Michelle, who is the executive director of the Alpha Omega Foundation. They told her they wanted to make a $20,000 donation to the winery’s charitable arm, but then they wanted the money to go to help young people. Michelle suggested the Hadleys look at the Napa Valley Community Foundation’s website and one program stood out – the Fruit of the Vine Scholarship. The Fruit of the Vine Scholarship program was established by a local grape grower who was able to graduate from UC Berkley back when tuition was just $100. With that cost having increased exponentially, though, he saw a need to help – particularly those students who might be the first in the family to attend college and those whose parents work in viticulture. Nearly 100 students have received scholarships, which generally run $4,000 each year, since the program was established in 2014. Students have attended or are attending 19 different institutions, all but one of which is a California land grant university or college. The Hadleys are among an estimated two dozen families who have made donations to the Fruit of the Vine Scholarship program. Terence Mulligan, the executive director of the Napa Valley Community Foundation, says their support “means a ton. “Round numbers, it means one kid’s going to be taken care of all the way through college,” he says. “A cool 20,000 is a really generous gift, and it means opportunity basically for these hard-working young people who are really the future of our community.” Michelle Baggett agrees, saying the Hadleys “hit the ball out of the park,” when they decided to donate to Fruit of the Vine. The agriculture, hospitality and wine industries need bright young minds to learn and return to the area for it to continue to prosper. “What a blessing for these kids to get a four-year paid scholarship for an undergraduate degree to hopefully come back to Napa and to continue the good work that we do out here,” she says. Chesson and Amanda used the rest of the money that Hadley won in the Birdies For Love competition to make a $20,000 donation to the Shriners Children’s Hospital and another of $10,00 to help fund a golf scholarship at Georgia Tech where he went to college. Those donations also had special meaning to the couple. “My cousin is an orthotist and prosthetist there at Shriners in Greenville, South Carolina,” Amanda says. “So, she molds the fake legs and the orthotics and stuff. They were shocked, absolutely shocked, and they sent us some neat little videos of kids whose lives had been changed from their visits to Shiners.” And Hadley says one of the reasons he’s playing the PGA TOUR right now is Georgia Tech coach Bruce Hepler. “He does a great job of raising professional golfers, but also turning us into a functioning human being that’s going to contribute to society,” he says. That’s exactly what Hadley did when he and his wife decided to leave some of the Birdies Fore Love money that he won in the Napa Valley which has been their “spot,” Amanda says, since the couple honeymooned there more than a decade ago. Not surprisingly, long before they boarded the plane for California on Monday, the Hadleys – no longer the 23-year-olds newlyweds who “knew nothing “– had been planning their activities in the wine country when Chesson isn’t playing in the TOUR’s kickoff event at Silverado. They have their special places like Model Bakery where they get the brick oven-baked English muffins with jam that are among Oprah Winfrey’s favorite things. They’ll go to Bouchon for the macaroons and Rutherford Grill for the kale salad with peanut dressing. “Obviously the wine’s incredible, but the food is every bit as good as the wine out there,” Hadley says. One of the highlights, though, was Tuesday’s check presentation at Alpha Omega, where Chesson and Amanda got to meet two Fruit of the Vine scholarship recipients. Seeing first-hand how their donation made quite an impact on Chesson and Amanda. “We are Christians, and we have a strong faith background, and this is what we are called to do,” Hadley says. “We believe that everything that we have, and we’ve been given is not really ours. Like God has given us these things — our talents, our house and obviously our income, and we’re just stewards of it. “And so, this is just what we’re supposed to do. It’s really cool that I was able to win this and be able to give back and keep some of the money in the Napa community. And you know, I would certainly love to be able to do that again this year.”

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