These Kids Can Play Paintfest!
THE PLAYERS Championship
By: Sara Moores

Another beautiful week in Ponte Vedra Beach, FL at THE PLAYERS Championship as we see PGA TOUR professionals line up a shot to the famous 17th Island Green on the TPC Sawgrass Stadium course. It flies over the water and bounces into.....Jaxson De Ville, mascot for the Jacksonville Jaguars?  And wait, the hole is only 30 feet from the player? And look, over there. Kids and adults are painting...at the golf course? Art canvasses are spread out on tables and, is that a frog? And what's all of that laughing and giggling going on?

Take another look and you'll see players yakking it up with kids in wheel chairs, on crutches and with oxygen tanks as the PGA TOUR Wives Association and THE PLAYERS Championship hosted children from Community PedsCare, a pediatric palliative and hospice care program of Community Hospice for children with life-threatening and life-limiting conditions. This is the second year for this event where children of all ages are gathered at the Stadium Village at the beautiful TPC Sawgrass.  Inside the UBS tent is a replica of the 17th Island Green hole, including the water that frustrates so many players, but seems pretty easy to some of the kids that walk up and grab a club. Added this year was Paintfest, a project of The Foundation for Hospital Art. Its mission is to bring comfort and hope through art to people in healthcare facilities around the world and to make hospitals beautiful places for healing. The canvasses being painted during THE PLAYERS will be donated to local children's hospitals.

Tabitha Furyk, wife of PGA TOUR Player Jim Furyk, organized the event that brought the children, along with their parents, siblings and caregivers, to a morning of fun and golf. At the end of the day, children were tired, not from grueling medical procedures, but from sun, fresh air, games and laughter. Giving Through Golf comes in many forms.  This is one of them.