The headline this week heading into the Valspar Championship is Tiger Woods making his debut at the event as he continues his comeback, and for good reason. However, there is another “comeback” story that will unfold this week at the Copperhead Course.
Bill Haas will return to the PGA Tour this week, just three weeks after he was involved in a fatal crash that saw a friend of his get killed.
On February 13, Haas was a passenger in the car of Mark Gibello when the car clipped another car and slammed into a pole just outside Riviera Country Club where Haas was going to compete in the Genesis Open later that week.
”There’s not many templates to go by on something like this,” Haas said in his first interview since the accident. ”I was in a state of shock, disbelief. It was a tragic event, traumatic. I’m still unsure how to handle it. I keep going back to focusing on the Gibello family.”
While Haas only suffered minor physical injuries, he withdrew from the tournament and has not played in a PGA Tour event since the accident.
Haas admits that he hasn’t played much golf since the accident. His clubs remained at Riviera until after the Genesis Open when they were shipped back to him. He hasn’t practiced much either. While he doesn’t know what to expect this week at the Valspar, he said that he is looking forward to focusing on golf as much as he can.
”Once I get inside the ropes, I think there will be a sense of relief,” he said. ”It’s what I know best, to be competitive. Every time we tee it up, we want to do well. That’s important to me. Hopefully, I can do that. I think I’ll be able to do that.”
