Chris Stroud, pro golfers pitch in at Texas charity event for Hurricane Harvey victims

Bill Haas returns to golf this week knowing the Valspar Championship will be unlike any of the previous 347 times he has played on the PGA TOUR. The deep bruise on his left leg and the soreness in his right ankle have subsided. Still tender are memories of a friend, Mark Gibello, who was killed Feb. 13 on a winding road outside Riviera Country Club in Los Angeles when his Ferrari clipped another car and slammed into a pole. Haas was the passenger. “There’s not many templates to go by on something like this,” Haas said in his first interview since the accident. “I was in a state of shock, disbelief. It was a tragic event, traumatic. I’m still unsure how to handle it. I keep going back to focusing on the Gibello family.” He described the Gibellos as mutual friends he planned to stay with during the Genesis Open. Haas and Gibello played golf the previous weekend at Los Angeles Country Club, where Gibello was a member and played a role in the club hosting the Walker Cup last year. Gibello was a close friend of Bill Harmon, the swing coach who works with Haas. “It didn’t take me long to realize how much his family loved him, how nice he was to me and my family,” Haas said. His wife, Julie, has kept in touch with Gibello’s wife. The funeral service in Santa Monica, California, was Friday, the same day the final field was set for the Valspar Championship in Florida. Tiger Woods is playing for the first time. So is Rory McIlroy. That figures to deflect plenty of attention from Haas trying to get back to work. The 35-year-old Haas returns with a greater appreciation of life and a level of support he never realized he had. His golf bag remained in the Riviera locker room for the rest of the Genesis Open until it was shipped home to him in South Carolina. Haas hasn’t practiced much. He played golf Sunday in Greenville and planned to leave Monday night for the Valspar Championship in Palm Harbor, Florida. “The amount of love and support and outreach I got from my peers and friends has been amazing,” he said. “At the same time, a friend of mine is not here anymore. … There’s just no real way to explain life, why it happens and how it happens. You can’t take tomorrow for granted. You have to enjoy today and prepare for tomorrow. All that said, I still feel like I have to go compete. I can’t just say golf doesn’t matter. That’s what I do. I think that’s what Mark would want. “He was a golf fan. He loved golf. He would want me to care about how I play.” Haas has not responded to all of the phone calls and text messages because of the sheer volume, but he looks forward to being back out again among his golfing family. Webb Simpson, a fellow Wake Forest alum, is among those who reached out to him. “I remember waking up the morning after it happened. My wife got a text from Julie, and we were pretty emotional that morning,” Simpson said. “He hated it more than anything for that family. He needs to get over it mentally now probably more than physically, but I think it will be good for him to get out on tour.” Simpson lost his father late last year and remembers how much it helped to get back inside the ropes. “Time doesn’t necessarily heal, but with time it gets easier,” Simpson said. Haas is a six-time winner on the PGA TOUR, though he has gone three years since his last victory. He’s best known for saving par from the shallow water at East Lake during a playoff he won at the TOUR Championship to claim the FedExCup, and making the clinching putt in the Presidents Cup with his father, Jay, as the U.S. captain. Along with leaning on his wife and his family, he has spent time with a therapist to cope with the wide range of emotions and the lingering questions. “I don’t know that I won’t have recurring images and thoughts and feelings about that night,” he said. “Why was he taken and I wasn’t? I ask, `Why?’ all the time. From the people who have reached out to me and the advice I’ve been given, you can’t ask, `Why?’ in life. Life happens in ways you can’t explain. There’s no point in asking. It won’t solve anything, and it only brings more questions.” He doesn’t know what to expect at Innisbrook, only that he wants to focus on golf as much as he can. Haas will need a good week at Innisbrook to get into the World Golf Championships-Dell Match Play Championship in two weeks. Otherwise, he’ll take a few more weeks off. “Once I get inside the ropes, I think there will be a sense of relief,” he said. “It’s what I know best, to be competitive. Every time we tee it up, we want to do well. That’s important to me. Hopefully, I can do that. I think I’ll be able to do that.” What makes him most anxious about his return is the reception he might get from friends and from fans. “This needs to not be about me,” he said. “This has got to be about golf and the Gibello family.”

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THE PLAYERS Championship winner Webb Simpson and fast-rising Cameron Champ headline the roster as Georgia’s Golden Isles once again serve as the backdrop to hand out one more trophy – and Sentry Tournament of Champions invitation – before the season enters its holiday break. Tournament host Davis Love III, elder statesman among pros who call St. Simon’s Island home, again leads a local lineup at least a dozen strong. Residents have yet to cheer a “true� home winner, though two of the Classic’s eight previous champions had significant ties to the island. FIELD NOTES: Patton Kizzire, the only St. Simon’s Island pro to reach the FedExCup finale at East Lake, and Zach Johnson also will fly the island’s banner along with former PGA TOUR winners Brian Harman, Harris English, Hudson Swafford and Jonathan Byrd. … Retief Goosen, set for entry into the World Golf Hall of Fame next year, makes his second start since receiving the news. That makes it a trio with Hall of Fame credentials, along with Love and Ernie Els. … U.S. Ryder Cup captain Jim Furyk makes his third consecutive start since bringing his clubs out of hibernation. … Invitations were given to LSU freshman standout Garrett Barber, who won last February’s Jones Cup at Sea Island, along with Love’s son Dru. It’ll be Dru’s third chance to tee it up on home soil. FEDEXCUP: Winner receives 500 points. STORYLINES: The race remains on to become the first man to keep the RSM Classic trophy on the island. Though Chris Kirk lived there 6 ½ years, he relocated to Atlanta months before his 2013 victory. Two years later, Kisner won while in temporary housing as his South Carolina home underwent remodeling. The closest a fulltimer has come is a pair of fourths – Love in 2012 and Harman last year. … It’s the final chance for someone to punch his ticket to Kapalua in January, a timely perk for each of the Classic’s first eight winners. … Champ, winner of the Sanderson Farms Championship, makes his first visit to Sea Island as a PGA TOUR pro. The Texas A&M alum is plenty familiar with the place, though, with the SEC Championship making an annual stop. … Champ and Sam Ryder, with a pair of top-4 finishes in the new season, are among a handful with a chance to displace Xander Schauffele atop the FedExCup standings before the holiday break. Schauffele is taking the week off. … When Austin Cook won by four last year, it was just the second time in eight editions that the winner finished more than one shot clear. Kisner holds the record with a six-shot romp in 2015. COURSE: Sea Island GC (Seaside), 7,005 yards, par 70. Framed against tidal creeks, dunes and salt marshes, the layout at the southern tip of St. Simons Island got its start as a nine-hole track built in 1929 by English architects Harry Colt and Charles Alison. Bobby Jones once described Seaside as among the best nine holes he’d ever seen. Joe Lee created the “Marshside Nine� in 1973, and Tom Fazio was commissioned to bring the two together in 1999. Seaside places a premium on shot selection and sound course management. Entrants also play one of their first two rounds at the par-72 Plantation course, which joined the format three years ago after Rees Jones fused two other nine-hole layouts into an 18-hole test. • 72-HOLE RECORD: 260, Kevin Kisner (2015). • 18-HOLE RECORD: 60, Tommy Gainey (4th round, 2012). • LAST YEAR: Cook fired a second-day 62 and held off any late threats with three birdies in his last four holes, pulling away on a windy afternoon to a four-shot romp for his first PGA TOUR victory. The Arkansas pro took a three-shot lead into the final day, but saw it reduced to one over J.J. Spaun as winds made things increasingly difficult on the Seaside layout. A bogey by Spaun at No.16 allowed Cook to enjoy a little more cushion, and Cook drained a 4-foot birdie at No.15 to start his closing flourish. Cook, who finished with a 67, broke into the winner’s column in just his 14th TOUR start and fourth of his official rookie season, becoming the fifth player to win the Classic in his first pro visit to Sea Island. Brian Gay was another stroke back in third. HOW TO FOLLOW TELEVISION: Thursday-Sunday, 1:30-4:30 p.m. ET (Golf Channel). PGA TOUR LIVE: None. RADIO: Thursday-Friday, 11 a.m.-4:30 p.m.; Saturday-Sunday, noon-4:30 p.m. (PGA TOUR Radio on SiriusXM and PGATOUR.com).  

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