The Loop

'Sad day for us happy day for heaven'

November 10, 2009

So wrote LPGA player Nicole Hage on Twitter regarding the death Monday of her friend Mallory Code, a former junior golf star from the Tampa, Fla., area.

Code won four American Junior Golf Association events, played for the U.S. in the Junior Ryder Cup and Junior Solheim Cup in 2002, went to the University of Florida on a scholarship, all while battling cystic fibrosis, the disease that finally claimed her life at 25.

Friends on the LPGA took to the internet to pay tribute to this remarkable young woman who never ceased to embrace life, even with all the hardships it foisted upon her.

Morgan Pressel: "Y-day was a very sad day, the most amazing young woman I have ever known passed away. She touched so many lives and will be greatly missed."

Paula Creamer: "Rip mallory. You wre an amazing person and role model to many. My thoughts and prayers go out to you and your family. You will be missed."

Hage: "RIP Mallory Code-- sad day for us happy day for heaven...She was one of those pple u wanted to be around-never complained always positive and a fighter-she had a full ride to UF only played 1 event...She's been in and out of the hospital- but graduated and lived a fuller happier life in 24yrs than most pple do in a lifetime."

You can read more about her life here and here.

-- John Strege