Kueny’s mother and
father, Karen and Jim,
who were 22 and 23,
respectively when their
daughter was diagnosed
with cancer, comforted
her while she dealt
with the disease and
accompanying series of
treatments.
LAURA KUENY (4); KUENY AND JORDAN—HIGGINS: FILE PHOTO
Though she participated in multiple sports growing up,
Kueny initially came to golf by swinging a cut-down
club at a charity golf event that was held to help offset
her medical expenses.
Later that spring, she turned pro and headed
to what was then the LPGA’s Futures Tour—
now called the Symetra Tour.
Three years later in 2013, the Michigan
player battled LPGA players Tiffany Joh and
Alena Sharp to win her first Symetra Tour
tournament. After her win, she returned
home and walked back through the doors of
Helen DeVos Children’s Hospital in Grand
Rapids, Mich., for the first time since she had
entered as a very sick little girl.
For that visit, she carried her trophy to
show the nurse who had shepherded her
through those many terrifying treatments.
And she also gave the nurse a signed
photograph of her holding the trophy with
the words “Never Give Up” written on the
photo. She asked that the picture be placed
where children in the hospital could see it
and requested that nurses tell them she had
been a former patient, just like them.
“I didn’t always have hope when I was little,
but I want these kids to have it,” Kueny ͅ