Koepka builds seven-shot lead at PGA Championship

SASKATOON, Sask. – Graham DeLaet has never been so tan. The 36-year-old Canadian saw a photo of himself the other day and couldn’t believe how much color his skin had absorbed over the last few months, an unfortunate byproduct of being sidelined due to a back injury that has kept him away from the PGA TOUR since October 2017 and spending more time recovering in his backyard pool with his young twins.  The former Presidents Cup star underwent a steam cell injection in California late last year and although the healing process was supposed to be just over a week, he continued to experience tenderness and discomfort through the early part of 2018. The procedure hasn’t worked for DeLaet, who is now looking at alternative options to aid in his recovery – and hopefully avoid surgery. “We’ve been hoping that the stem cell would work and actually regenerate the disc, but I just recently had imaging and it’s kind of gone the other way a little bit,â€� DeLaet said. “Now it’s back to the drawing board a little bit and visiting doctors and try to pinpoint what the issue is.â€� He hits balls occasionally, but even going to the grocery store and walking around for 30 minutes sends him to the couch for a rest. But DeLaet has managed to keep busy this past eight months or so, getting his pilot’s license, getting inducted into the Boise State Broncos’ Hall of Fame for his accomplishments as a collegiate golfer, and perhaps most importantly, continuing to work with his wife Ruby on their charity – the Graham and Ruby DeLaet Foundation – that helps children, and junior golfers, in his home province of Saskatchewan. DeLaet’s foundation has raised more than $1.5 million since its inception, and if you include the three charity events he hosted prior to his foundation being formed (after his breakout 2013 season where he finished eighth in the FedExCup) the figure is north of $2 million. This year’s charity, the Ronald McDonald House, was gifted nearly a quarter of a million dollars. The Ronald McDonald House provides local families with a place to stay while their child is in and out of hospitals. Canadian rock band The Tragically Hip played from the speakers of a banquet hall in downtown Saskatoon Wednesday, while cans of DeLaet’s own craft beer label, Prairie Baard, were served to a mixed crowd – women in cocktail dresses, men in jeans, and DeLaet (clean shaven, even) in a fashionable black suit with a black tie and polka-dot pocket square. Some movers-and-shakers in the province bid on experiences at TOUR events like the Safeway Open and the Waste Management Phoenix Open. The second day of the event, dubbed the ‘Graham Slam,’ took place at Willows Golf and Country Club, where DeLaet didn’t hit any balls but instead advised a group of 30-or-so kids (who are participating in Presidents Cup-style competition this weekend where golfers from the Eastern part of the country take on golfers from the West) of his usual PGA TOUR routine, and did his best to wow the kids with some trick shots. The affable DeLaet is at ease with a corporate CEO, a group of kids, or someone he passes on the street wishing him well. When asked if that attitude is a ‘Graham DeLaet’ thing or a ‘Saskatchewan’ thing, the answer is simple, he says. “It’s a prairie thing,â€� he confirms. “There’s something about being from the prairies and Saskatchewan. There’s a pride. We know we’re a quote-on-quote underdog of Canada and that’s just us, fighting the fight. It’s how it’s been my whole life. I grew up here and went to Boise State — it’s the same thing (the school), the little engine that could. “In Saskatchewan… It’s a blue-collar mentality and they’re all good people. They’re welcoming. Now it’s more urbanized but almost everyone grew up on farms. You help, you work, if your neighbor needs help, you help.â€� DeLaet notices the same faces most years at his event, and it’s easy for him to see first-hand how committed the community is to helping others. Earlier this year, he saw that even more. About an hour from Saskatoon is Humboldt, Saskatchewan, the hometown of the junior hockey team whose bus was hit by a truck driver, killing 16 people. The outpouring of support from the world-at-large was tremendous, as the GoFundMe campaign set up to help the victims was Canada’s largest. It raised $15 million after a modest goal of a few thousand dollars to help buy some coffee and cover parking costs for the victims’ parents. DeLaet says his sister lives in that area. He has been to the area many times before and driven the exact road where the crash happened, specifically en route to a golf tournament. “It’s a bus trip almost everyone growing up has had. It was just such a tragedy,â€� he says. “People here came together, but it was national and globally as well. It was pretty amazing.â€�    Although professionally this year has been a struggle for DeLaet, the Humboldt bus crash and watching his own children grow and develop has put things into perspective for him. At one point during breakfast at DeLaet’s event, his son, Roscoe, was on his lap. Drinking apple juice from a coffee cup, the two-and-a-half-year-old is sliding up and down his dad’s leg while DeLaet recalls the first time he met Tiger Woods to a crowd of about 40 people (It didn’t go well. At Aronimink Golf Club they have a saloon-style door into the bathroom in the locker room, and DeLaet said he slammed the door into Woods’ chest). To look at DeLaet interact with his kids and the crowd would be to look at someone who appears just fine. He doesn’t move with a wince, he seems nimble enough to pick up his son – and twin daughter Kayla, who isn’t far behind – and confidently walk to the buffet to grab a piece of fruit. But DeLaet admits from a health and golf standpoint this year has been frustrating. “I miss playing so much, I miss being out there with the guys and I don’t know anything other than golf. It’s all I’ve done the last 15-20 years, and you don’t realize how lucky you are until it’s swept out from under your feet,â€� he says. He says he is in “OKâ€� shape right now and could probably play, but if he did, he would be in “so much painâ€� he probably couldn’t compete on the PGA TOUR. It wears on him mentally, and he’s doing his best to get his ailing back fixed. He says getting a spinal fusion surgery, like Woods, would be “drasticâ€� at this stage. Right now he’s trying to exhaust every option without having to go under the knife again. He did a procedure about eight years ago that caused him to miss the entire 2011 season.   He knows he’s going to be back out playing, but no timeline has been set. And whether he’ll be playing at 100 percent or just put together by a few Band-Aid solutions remains to be seen. He says he doesn’t want to do that for too many years, because he wants to have a good life after golf as well. “I’m in good enough shape to live a life, but not really to be playing competitive golf,â€� he said. The silver lining of the extended time away from his golf family has been the time he’s spent with his own family, which is why the charitable efforts this year in particular have hit even closer to home.  The DeLaet’s met while at Boise State and now split time between Scottsdale, Arizona and Boise, Idaho. They just celebrated their 10th wedding anniversary together with a celebration alongside family and friends to renew their vows. Although his kids would come on the road with the couple most of the time when they were travelling, after about 8 hours on the course DeLaet would usually be tired and not get the quality time he was hoping for. “I’ve had a lot of that this year though,â€� he says with a smile. Despite this year’s setback, he acknowledges he and Ruby are lucky. They’re in a position to give both money and time to a local cause in an area that celebrates athletes of all levels, but especially professionals. “I had never really met a professional athlete when I was a kid, just our local Junior A hockey team. Those guys I looked up to and it was amazing,â€� says DeLaet. “For these kids to be able to be around a PGA TOUR player and mix it up and have memories that will last a lifetime… that will be amazing.â€� As this year’s Graham Slam comes to a close, DeLaet poses for selfies with a group of the kids – that tan in full view – and bends over into an awkward position to get more of the participants in the photo. Then he stands up straight, and smiles.

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