PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. – It was a dream come true. Liam Smith had the best day ever.
RELATED: Countdown to The Players Championship is on at TPC Sawgrass
The Tom Coughlin Jay Fund patient got to spend his dream day at TPC Sawgrass. He said he loves golf more every time he goes to play it.
“Liam has loved the game of golf since the day he was born,” Liam’s mom Lacey Smith said. “He used to always carry around a plastic little club.”
The day started with a one-on-one lesson with director of instruction at the PGA Tour’s Performance Center Todd Anderson, one of the best golf instructors in the country.
“It was very fun meeting him today,” Liam Smith said. “He helped my swing a lot today. He gave me a lot of new tips.”
“It’s fun to see a young man like that whose been through a lot and to have this passion for the game and to have this drive to try to improve and get better,” Anderson said. “I was blessed to have the opportunity to spend a little time with him to see really how passionate he is about the game and how much he wants to improve.”
Then he got a tour of the clubhouse and a history lesson of the course.
“The writing on the napkin to make the back nine is very cool,” Liam Smith said.
He even got to visit the locker room where The Players Championship executive director Lee Smith surprised Liam with a once in a lifetime opportunity: new golf clubs and the opportunity to sit inside the ropes during Wednesday’s practice round.
“It’s really emotional to see a kid like Liam that we knew years ago when he was a young kid and had cancer,” Tom Coughlin Jay Fund CEO Keli Coughlin said. “To see him today as a healthy teenager who’s getting to have the day of his dreams and meeting his heroes out on the golf course, and getting surprise after surprise around a sport that he truly loves is just heartwarming and emotional to see. We couldn’t do it without The Players making things like this possible.”
Liam was diagnosed with cancer when he was just 2 years old. After a three year treatment process, Liam is now a healthy cancer free 14-year-old.
“When you have a sick child, that’s all you do is you lay there, you battle tears, whirlwinds of emotions, prayers, and you just hope for days like this when everyone’s healthy,” Lacey Smith said.
Liam plays almost every day at his local golf course. He’s training hard so when he starts high school next year at Fletcher, he can join the golf team and maybe that can be the start of a long and storied golf career.
“Liam really lives and breathes the game of golf,” Lacey Smith said. “So for him to be able to one day make it professionally, I couldn’t even imagine the joy that would bring.”