Tiger Woods humbled by meeting with Parkland shooting survivor

Tiger Woods took a few minutes out of his warmup session for Wednesday’s Honda Classic pro-am to brighten the day of a student who survived last week’s shooting massacre at nearby Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.

CBS12, based in West Palm Beach, reported that Woods’ caddie Joe LaCava learned of the presence on the practice range of Kevin Shanahan, a long-time volunteer at the PGA Tour event in Palm Beach Gardens, which is about an hour’s drive north of the school where a gunman killed 17 of Shanahan’s schoolmates on February 14. LaCava informed his boss about Shanahan’s story and Woods beckoned the high school sophomore to his spot on the range, where he signed the young man’s hat and shook his hand.

“It was really a majority of me thanking him because I thought, ‘Oh my God I’m getting this signed by Tiger Woods,’ but it really felt like he talked from the heart,” said Shanahan. “It didn’t feel scripted, it felt like it really came from him being sincere and saying, ‘I’m really sorry that you’re going through this,’ and it made me feel awesome.”

While chatting with Woods may have dazzled Shanahan, Woods found the encounter moving and humbling.

“Meeting him brings you right back to reality, thinking about what he has to deal with and what he’s seen and things he has to deal with the rest of his life,” Woods told USA Today Sports after his opening-round even-par 70. ”It’s humbling that he wanted to meet me.

“But he was out here, wanting to get away from it, wanting to enjoy it, and it was nice to be able to help him enjoy being out here,” added Woods, a father of two. “When he leaves here, leaves the golf course, he has to go back to a pretty harsh reality.”

Shanahan said he also snapped a photo with defending champion Rickie Fowler.

“All of the players here are with Stoneman and it makes me happy to be a student and be acknowledged here,” Shanahan told the CBS affiliate.

Thanks to Stoneman graduate and tour player Nick Thompson (Lexi’s brother), who distributed the items, several players during Thursday’s first round donned ribbons and wristbands honoring those who died in the slaughter.

Shanahan, wearing a school polo shirt as a tribute to his fallen friends, expressed pride in his classmates for their post-shooting actions.

“A lot of my friends are protesting in Washington, D.C., right now, and I see them on TV and it’s like we’ve changed from these high schoolers living our daily lives to revolutionaries, starting this whole entire movement,” Shanahan said.

Following Thursday’s round, Woods spoke about last week’s tragedy.

“I live here,” Tiger, a California transplant to Jupiter, Fla., told reporters. “It’s just a shame what people are doing now, and all the countless lives that we’ve lost for absolutely no reason at all. It’s just a shame, and what they have to deal with, at such a young age, the horrible tragedy they are going to have to live with and some of the things we’ve seen, just don’t go away.”