{"id":649555,"date":"2026-03-12T04:44:20","date_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:44:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649555\/"},"modified":"2026-03-12T04:44:20","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T04:44:20","slug":"kids-battling-illness-get-inside-the-ropes-experience-at-the-players-championship","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/649555\/","title":{"rendered":"Kids battling illness get inside-the-ropes experience at The Players Championship"},"content":{"rendered":"

PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla.<\/strong> \u2013 Two young golf fans battling serious illnesses got a once-in-a-lifetime experience at The Players Championship. They were invited inside the ropes at the iconic 17th hole island green at TPC Sawgrass \u2014 earning an up-close look at some of the best golfers in the world.<\/p>\n

Avett Hoffman,7, is at The Players for the first time. The Tom Coughlin Jay Fund patient was diagnosed with leukemia in 2023, just months after starting Pre-K. Whenever he felt well enough, Avett and his dad would head to the golf course. Now, he\u2019s seeing the game at one of its most famous venues.<\/p>\n

\u201cVery cool,\u201d Avett Hoffman. \u201cIt\u2019s my first time, and I\u2019ve never been.\u201d<\/p>\n

Avett\u2019s parents said moments like this mean everything after the challenges their family has faced.<\/p>\n

\u201cNow getting to come over here, be inside the ropes, for him getting to experience this is awesome,\u201d Avett\u2019s father, Alex Hoffman said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter everything that he had to go through, getting to kind of do this stuff, seeing him healthy, coming around, running up to people has been a really cool experience,\u201d Alex Hoffman said.<\/p>\n

Doctors hope Avett will complete treatment in May. His parents say seeing him active again is something they don\u2019t take for granted.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe first six months, he could barely walk after being diagnosed, so this is, he\u2019s come full circle,\u201d Avett\u2019s mother, Shannon Hoffman said. \u201dThis is really fun to watch.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Hoffman family also credits the Jay Fund for helping relieve some of the financial and emotional stress during treatment.<\/p>\n

\u201cThings start to come in and accrue, and you start to have to focus on taking some of the attention away from the child,\u201d Alex Hoffman said. \u201dThat\u2019s been a huge help to alleviate some of those stresses.\u201d<\/p>\n

Camden Christofferson,8, was also inside the ropes. The Dreams Come True patient was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis. He\u2019s already a huge golf fan and dreams of one day playing professionally.<\/p>\n

\u201cReally fun to me,\u201d Christofferson said.<\/p>\n

Camden says being this close to the action only made him love the game even more. His favorite golfer is Rickie Fowler and he hopes one day he might follow in those footsteps.<\/p>\n

Both families say experiences like this help bring moments of joy and inspiration during difficult journeys. <\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 by WJXT News4JAX – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"PONTE VEDRA BEACH, Fla. \u2013 Two young golf fans battling serious illnesses got a once-in-a-lifetime experience at The…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":649556,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,121605,3188,723,1430,7310,1456,62,88672,110251,60926,106918,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":["post-649555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-america","tag-dreams-come-true","tag-fl","tag-florida","tag-golf","tag-jacksonville","tag-pga-tour","tag-sports","tag-the-players-championship","tag-tom-coughlin-jay-fund","tag-tpc","tag-tpc-sawgrass","tag-united-states","tag-united-states-of-america","tag-unitedstates","tag-unitedstatesofamerica","tag-us","tag-usa"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116214384609152662","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649555","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=649555"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/649555\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/649556"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=649555"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=649555"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=649555"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}