Off-the-course setbacks test resilience of TOUR players

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It has been a rough year for Ken Green, but he and other pros have vowed to make their 2009 tragedies turn positive for the future.

What will you remember about the 2009 season? That was the simple question we asked PGATOUR.COM staffers and writers, who responded with a series of short essays. As we finish up November, we'll post several each day. Click here for next essay

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What will you remember?

Bad news came often in 2009. But as quickly as players found their lives turned upside-down by tragedy, the PGA TOUR rallied around them.

Phil Mickelson's wife, Amy, was diagnosed with breast cancer in mid-May. Then, just seven weeks later, the world No. 2 learned that his mother, Mary, also had the disease.

In honor of the Mickelsons, PGA TOUR pros proved they weren't too macho to wear pink as they, along with thousands of fans, sported the color on the Saturday of the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial. Vijay Singh donned a pink shirt, while Ian Poulter was decked out from head-to-toe. Others affixed pink ribbons to their hats and, when Mickelson made his return to golf later in the summer, he wore a pink ribbon embroidered on his cap.

In June, players on the Champions Tour and PGA TOUR, as well as tournament attendees traded their pink ribbons for green ones in honor of five-time TOUR winner Ken Green. Green, along with his older brother William; girlfriend, Jeanne Hodgin; and German shepherd, Nip, were traveling in an RV near Meridian, Miss., when their right front tire blew, causing the vehicle to swerve off the road, tumble down a hill and crash into a tree.

Ken was the only survivor.

"I lost my three best friends on the planet, there's no other way around it," the Champions Tour player said months later. "I know I'm lucky to be alive, but I miss them so much. It's awful. You cry all the time."

A polarizing figure at times on the PGA TOUR in the 1980s, Green once had a buddy bring him a beer on the 15th hole while paired with Arnold Palmer at the 1997 Masters so he could say, "I once had a beer with Arnold." But Palmer, Jack Nicklaus and Green's colleagues rallied around him like never before following the accident. The King and the Bear called him in the hospital to voice their support, while Mark Calcavecchia and Curtis Strange planned a special golf tournament to raise funds for their friend's medical expenses.

Though Green's lower right leg was amputated after the accident, he's fighting hard to beat the odds and return to the Champions Tour, and he was bolstered by the outpouring of support from the golf community.

Tragedy struck Chris Smith's family in late June. His wife, Beth, died when the sport utility vehicle she was a passenger in struck a Greyhound bus carrying members of a Canadian football team near Peru, Ind. More than 20 people were hurt in the crash, including Smith's 16-year-old daughter, Abigail, and 12-year-old son, Cameron.

Smith's friends on the Nationwide Tour and PGA TOUR wore black ribbons and the No. 15, Chris' lucky number, to show their support. More than a dozen TOUR pros attended the memorial service for Beth, including close pal Brett Quigley, who gave up a last-minute spot in the British Open to attend the funeral.

"I had tears rolling down my face," Quigley said to the Providence Journal after the service. "It was tough to see their daughter, Abigail, whose pelvis was shattered, using a walker, and his son in a wheelchair. They both were badly burned. They'll need skin grafts, but, if there's a silver lining, it's that the burns were not on their face or neck.

"I can't imagine what they're all going through. I don't know how I'd deal with those emotions. It's just brutal. It breaks your heart."

When Kenny Perry's mother passed away after a long battle with cancer, his Presidents Cup teammates were there for him. Jonathan Byrd's father died after battling brain cancer in July, and TOUR players Davis Love III, Lucas Glover and Zach Johnson, among others, flew from Ohio to South Carolina between the first and second rounds of the John Deere Classic to attend the memorial service.

More than most years, 2009 reminded us that, for all their talent and success, TOUR players aren't immune to life's heartbreak. But it's not only the hard times that we'll remember about this season -- it's also the way the TOUR came together to support their own.

These guys are good, and these guys are family.

Lauren Deason, an Editorial Coordinator at PGATOUR.COM, has been a member of the TOUR's family since 2006.