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By Greg Hardwig
Naples Daily News
Each year of The Franklin Templeton Shootout, tournament founder Greg Norman and his wife, Laura, select a child who has or has had cancer to be honored through CureSearch, the National Childhood Cancer Foundation.
 | | Halle Theall, 7, hails from hurricane stricken Abbeville, La. |
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This year, the Normans and CureSearch thought to reach out not only to a child and his/her family, but to an area in need of help. Halle Theall, a 7-year-old from Abbeville, La., and her family were invited, and money raised from the tournament for CureSearch will be distributed to Tulane University's children's hospital in New Orleans, which was flooded by Hurricane Katrina.
Theall, who was treated at Tulane, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia when she was 3 in July 2002. The disease has stunted her growth, but she was in remission only one month after being admitted. She has finished chemotherapy and is scheduled to have a port removed in January. But Tulane's hospital has not reopened because of flooding from Katrina.
"Her personality and stamina are what helped her," said Halle's mother, Kay, who spoke at the tournament banquet on Thursday night.
And that personality is still there. She initially told Norman that she wanted to beat him playing golf. So the tournament had some clubs shortened for her for Friday's Family Clinic. But she got nervous when so many people showed up and instead played in a nearby bunker. Playing with her was a familiar face to Shootout fans in Naples. Cape Coral's Nicholas Marchitto, an 8-year-old who may be best remembered for walking down the fairway with Norman during the 2002 Shootout, has been in remission for four years.
"She loved it," Kay Theall said of her daughter's meeting with Marchitto.
 | | Kuehne (and his 350-plus yard drives) joined Norman for the Junior Instructional Clinic. |
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The clinic, which had a smaller crowd children-wise than in past years because of the Veterans Day school holiday, had somewhat of a theme of dealing with cancer, beyond the children. Trick shot artist Peter Johncke, who hit golf balls with all sorts of tricked-up clubs, also is a cancer survivor.
Before Johncke's show, Norman and Hank Kuehne, half of the two-time defending champion team, answered questions, and Kuehne pounded long drives on the driving range.
The Shootout actually started giving to CureSearch early this year. Scott McCarron, one of the Shootout's regulars, donated $25,000 he won to CureSearch at the BellSouth Classic in Atlanta in April. McCarron won the money from the Crestor Charity Challenge, where the tournament leader at a PGA event heading into the final round can choose the charity of his choice to receive a donation.
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