When Sepp Straka and his brother Sam were little kids with dreams of playing on the PGA TOUR, they were big fans of Scott Verplank.

While there was always plenty to cheer about – Verplank won five times on TOUR, including once as an amateur, the first to do so in 29 years – the reason the two youngsters first were drawn to the Texan was much more personal.

Sam Straka, like Verplank, is a golfer who lives with Type 1 diabetes.

“With my brother being a diabetic, we always rooted for Scott,” Sepp recalls. “We just thought it was cool to have a guy out there who kind of went through the same thing that Sam did and he's doing so well. So, he was always one of our guys that we rooted for.”

Verplank has become a big Straka fan of late, too.

Sepp finally realized his goal of making it to the PGA TOUR in 2019, and last fall, he finished second in the RSM Birdies Fore Love competition. That meant he had $150,000 to donate to the charity or charities of his choice.

After talking with his brother and researching organizations working with causes related to diabetes, Sepp found a perfect fit – and it happened to be the Scott and Kim Verplank Foundation. He liked its emphasis on awarding college scholarships to student-athletes who also have Type 1 diabetes.

“I could have donated to just overall diabetic research and try to find a cure, but I feel like it wouldn't have made as big of a difference as it did with his foundation,” Sepp says. “I think that one really touches lives and I thought that was pretty cool.”

Sepp was still in college when Verplank played in his final TOUR event so the two had never met. They are represented by the same management group, though, so one of Verplank’s friends at the firm called to tell him about Sepp’s $125,000 donation.

“I immediately got Sepp’s number and called him, and just was like, dude, you don't realize how cool it is, what you just did,” Verplank recalls. He also called Davis Love III, a friend since Verplank was 14, who hosts the RSM Classic where the competition concludes.

As he and Straka talked, Sepp told Verplank the backstory about his brother and how the two of them used to follow him, which the former Oklahoma State standout found “unbelievable.” The 57-year-old says it is “remarkable” that Sepp made the donation sight unseen, so to speak.

“If I had known him since he was a little kid and he knew all about (the foundation), that would be cool,” Verplank says. “But I hadn't even met him and I'm like, that just shows so much about him, and it shows a lot about the PGA TOUR.

“And it shows a lot about guys that play golf and how golfers are, and I'm very proud of that.”

Verplank, who now has Sepp as one of his favorites on the TOUR’s mobile scoring app, isn’t the only newly minted Straka fan, either.

“I said, well, you just picked up about eight people on my board and about 150 kids that are in college -- you just picked up a whole big crew of new fans,” Verplank says.

Verplank, who was once ranked as high as 11th in the world, started his foundation nearly a decade ago. Although he had helped raise money to fund research for a cure or advance treatment options in the past, he felt the need to do something more tangible.

One of Verplank’s friends has two sons who are Type 1 diabetics. In talking with him, Verplank became acutely aware of the out-of-pocket costs even the best insurance doesn’t cover – and that led to the idea of lessening the financial burden with college scholarships.

To date, the Foundation has awarded 65 renewable scholarships that average just under $20,000 per student. Recipients must have maintained a 3.0 grade point average and be an active participant on an athletic team while successfully managing their Type 1 diabetes.

“I want to find kids who are going to be the difference makers in the world and be the difference makers in society,” Verplank says. “… I may be long gone, but I'm hoping that the kids that we've helped, not only we help them through college, but that they learn that they can give something back and make the world better.

“It sounds a little cheesy, but that's the truth.”

One of the students Verplank has helped is Ryan Reagan, a fifth-year senior at Harvard. He’s from Duxbury, Massachusetts and plays tight end on the undefeated Crimson football team while finishing up the requirements for a degree in government and political science.

Reagan was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was in the third grade. After initially having to give himself shots – which he practiced doing on a pillow – he now controls the disease with a tubeless insulin management system called an Omnipod.

“It's a wireless device, so it just connects like anything else,” Reagan says. “And it does it for me, opposed to me having to calculate the insulin based off the carbs and get myself a manual shot. It's just a lot easier, a lot more convenient.”

While Reagan had several full rides to play football out of high school, he liked the people and the atmosphere he found around the program at Harvard. But Ivy League schools do not offer athletic scholarships so the financial aid he receives from the Verplank Foundation is a bonus.

“It's huge,” Reagan says. “Having to pay the full tuition is difficult really for anyone, especially with the price of it. But with Scott awarding me this, which I'm so grateful for, this is life-changing for my family, being helped to be able to afford going here.

“And I can't thank them enough for the opportunity.”

Verplank was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes when he was 9. He’d been sick for about a week with flu-like symptoms but wasn’t showing any improvement. So a friend of his mother encouraged her to take him back to the doctor.

“The last thing I remember was driving in the backseat of my mom's car, driving to the hospital,” Verplank recalls. “And I passed out, or whatever you call it, when you go into a diabetic coma.”

Type 1 diabetes is a chronic condition in which the pancreas produces little or no insulin which is needed so sugar can enter the cells and produce energy. Verplank says diabetes doesn’t identify him, but it’s been a part of him now for about 90 percent of his life.

Like so many kids with the autoimmune disease, Verplank had to grow up fast after the diagnosis. He practiced on an orange and learned to give himself daily insulin shots. He had to monitor his blood sugar levels, as well.

The routine continued through an All-America career at Oklahoma State that culminated with an NCAA title and his first 13 or 14 years on the PGA TOUR. He was able to get an insulin pump in 1999 that he says “changed my life in a lot of ways.”

“I don't know how I made it through college with what I knew then compared to what I know now,” Verplank recalls. “I always say I'm lucky that I got to play golf and I could go outside every day. I stayed active and had something that I was really committed to -- to play good enough golf that I had to make sure I took care of myself.

“It’s not who I am, but it is definitely a guiding principle in my life because everything that I want to do or can do is dependent upon my health. So just as far as like playing the TOUR, I had different priorities waking up every morning than everybody else.

“I had to make sure that blood sugar numbers were where I needed them and all, because I quickly found out that quickly when I got older if your blood sugar is messed up and you don't feel well, then your chances of competing at any kind of decent level are not very good.”

The technology has improved dramatically since Verplank was diagnosed in what he jokingly calls the “stone age.” Things hadn’t changed much, though, when Sam Straka was diagnosed at the age of 7 and also started a regime of shots and monitoring his diet.

Sam, who has an insulin pump, as well, and Sepp both played collegiately at Georgia. Sam tried to follow his brother into the pro ranks but now works in real estate in Valdosta, Georgia, where both 28-year-olds live, and competes in amateur events.

“He doesn't try to play the blame game, but I definitely think so,” Sepp says when asked if diabetes hindered his brother’s golf career. “I mean, you're already worried about so many things on the golf course and then trying to maintain your blood sugar levels on top of that is just added stuff.

“And then on top of that, if you don't maintain them perfectly, you get some mood changes and all of that feeds into golf. And so yeah, I definitely think that it did.”

Verplank, who competed in two Ryder Cups, still plays on PGA TOUR Champions, making 22 starts during the super season that concludes in three weeks at the Charles Schwab Championship. But as he did a phone interview on a recent fall evening, the satisfaction he gets from the work of the Foundation was clearly evident in his voice.

“I'm proud of it, but that's not really the way I look at it,” Verplank says. “I'm more proud of Sepp Straka to be honest with you. We’ve raised a decent amount of money and we're able to help kids and families and trying to -- I wouldn't even say trying to make a difference, just trying to make the world better.

“Like I said, that sounds kind of hokey or whatever, but I want to give kids a chance to be real difference makers. And like I said just floored when I found out that Sepp was going to give money to our deal.”