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More than 114 people perished after the
deadliest U.S. wildfire in more than a century ripped through
the historic resort city of Lahaina in August.
"I'm super happy that the Tour was allowed to play," Xander
Schauffele, who lived on the island of Kauai as an infant, told
reporters ahead of The Sentry tournament.
"I think everyone's been relatively sensitive coming in and
everyone is trying to do the right thing. I'm hoping the event
can generate a lot of awareness and bring some eyeballs on what
happened and hopefully raise enough money."
Schauffele described the fallout he saw as he drove in from the
airport as "brutal."
"You don't really believe it until you see it," he said.
Officials estimate it will cost more than $5 billion to rebuild.
Collin Morikawa this week spent time at Hua Momona Farms to
spotlight their work preparing food to impacted families and
said he would donate $2,000 for every birdie and $4,000 for
every eagle he makes, money that will be matched by Adidas.
"So I've got a lot of birdies and eagles hopefully in my
future," he said.
The warm and welcoming spirit of the Hawaiian people helped
inspire him to back the Hawaii Community Foundation, one of
several relief organizations the PGA Tour has promoted in the
lead-up to the tournament.
"Every time I've been able to come to Hawaii you have this
culture of family," he said.
"Everyone always gives back ... and that's what I want to do for
this community.
"They have been through a lot of hardship over the past handful
of months and to know that you're able to help out just building
some boxes of food for them, giving back some money to help the
foundation here ... that's really important for me."
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by Sonali
Paul)
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