AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) Adam Hadwin is one of those rare Canadians who never played hockey.
Like all Canadians, he or she was rocked by a tragic coach crash that claimed 15 hails from his home country.
Hadwin, a native of Saskatchewan who else now lives near Vancouver, photo an even-par 72 Saturday within the third round of the Masters right after learning of the catastrophic wreck relating to the Humboldt Broncos, a junior handbags team on its way to a playoff sport.
” It demonstrates how short life is, ” Hadwin stated minutes after walking off the training course, just as the rain started dropping again on a gray, overcast time in Georgia. ” You need to value every moment. You need to appreciate the individuals around you. ”
The tractor-trailer truck slammed into a coach carrying the Broncos, a damage of such devastating proportions that the doctor compared it to an airstrike. The impact was especially serious in a vast but close-knit nation united by its love associated with hockey.
” All of us obviously don’ t have that lots of people, ” Hadwin said. ” When something like this happens, a lot of people are usually enveloped in that hockey world. This touched a lot of people, a lot of friends of individuals. It’ s difficult. ”
Hadwin, who was born within the western Canada town of Moose Jaw, did not play hockey we were young. He said his small dimension – even now, at age 30, he’ s just 5-foot-8 and 165 pounds – prompted his mother and father to steer him away from the particular rough, fast-paced game.
” I’ m actually disregarded Canadian, ” he quipped. ” But they still accept me occasionally. ”
As a kid, Hadwin stuck mostly to football and soccer. He didn’ to get serious about golf until this individual was a teenager, taking lessons through his father, who is a training professional. He went on to play Oughout. S. college golf at Louisville, earning his spot on the PGA Tour in 2015.
But Hadwin certainly understands the area that hockey holds in North america, and how much the country is influenced by a crash that also left fourteen people injured. The staggering cost is even more poignant on a group where the players are between sixteen and 20 years of age, presumably along with most of their lives still before them.
” This puts hockey into perspective, ” said Hadwin, a Vancouver Canucks fan who is playing the Experts for the second time. ” This puts golf into perspective. ”
Other sports joined up with the hockey world in a condition of mourning.
” Obviously this is something that transcends only one nation and one sport, ” stated John Axford, a reliever for your Toronto Blue Jays, who were within Texas to play the Rangers. ” There are people all over the world that are knowledge about these kids and their families plus their friends and the entire local community of Humboldt. It’ s difficult to talk about, in all honesty. ”
Axford remembered plenty of long tour bus rides playing youth baseball so that as he moved through the minor leagues. Even in the majors, teams require buses to get between the hotels as well as the stadiums while on the road.
” I was thinking about it last night within the bus on the way home from the online game, ” Axford said. ” Being an athlete, you spend a lot of time traveling to plus from events, and when you start actively playing in higher leagues, you’ lso are taking longer bus trips. That will bus becomes a second home, an additional locker room, a second place to suit your needs and your teammates and your brothers within arms there to learn, about one another, about the game, to talk, to chuckle, to just enjoy life.
” It really hits home. ”
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AP freelance writers Jeff Miller and Sam Hunt in Arlington, Texas led to this report.
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