Hurricane Katrina was hammering the Gulf Coast region of Louisiana in late August when Sonya Toms turned away from the destruction she was seeing on the television screen.

David Toms drives off the ninth tee during a practice round. His foundation has contributed more than $1.5 million for Hurricane Katrina victims. (Michael Holahan/Staff)

She looked to her husband, PGA Tour star David Toms, who was also feeling her pain.

"She said, 'David, whatever celebrity or any status you have, we need to use that to help these people,'" David Toms recalled. "It kind of got the ball rolling."

He mobilized his David Toms Foundation, which began three years ago to help abused, abandoned and underprivileged children. Now, it would help the hurricane victims of the ravaged coast.

"We sent out an e-mail to about 200 people who had already given to our foundation, and before you knew it, it was off and running," Toms said.

At last count, the foundation had contributed more than $1.5 million to help victims.

Along with fellow tour pros Hal Sutton and Kelly Gibson, Toms, the world's eighth-ranked player, will be honored tonight for his efforts to help disaster-stricken Louisiana.

They will be presented the Charles Bartlett Award at the annual Golf Writers Association of America Awards Banquet at Savannah Rapids Pavilion.

Sutton, a 14-time PGA Tour winner, used his Hal Sutton Foundation to aid the cause. Among other help, the foundation's Care Caddy provided medical services at shelters for 229 evacuees.

As for Gibson, he joined forces with the Feed the Relief program to be one of the responders on site in New Orleans.

Among other volunteer duties, he helped get trailers into the area that brought food for police, firefighters, the Coast Guard, doctors, nurses and other workers.

"Kelly was in the middle of it," Toms said. "We gave them a good bit of money to help what he was doing down there. He was kind of my sounding board about what was going on down there and where we should be directing some dollars."

Toms, Gibson and Sutton are all Louisiana natives who still reside in their home state. Toms and Sutton live in Shreveport, Gibson in New Orleans.

"All three of us hated to see it happen to our state," Toms said. "We've always supported the state of Louisiana, and we have directed some money to other parts of the Gulf Coast, like Mississippi. We're trying to do the best we can."

Much of the money from the Toms Foundation early on went to help displaced families.

"The biggest thing we did was get them into rental properties that paid the money for and got them furniture," Toms said. "It's really hard to find a furnished apartment. We found that out.

"We were buying furniture, school supplies, sometimes a car or cell phones. You name it. Whatever people needed, we were trying to meet that need."

Toms said some of the money raised by the foundation came from generous contributions by tour players. Big Horn Golf Club in Palm Springs, Calif., also made a significant contribution, Toms said.

The total amount raised by the foundation will exceed $2 million when a contribution is made during the tour's Zurich Classic of New Orleans, which begins later this month.

"We're going to give another $400,000 charity money to some New Orleans charities that were affected by the storm," Toms said. "We're saving that to make a big impact on them the week of the tournament."

One of Toms' 12 tour victories came in New Orleans, at the 2001 Compaq Classic.

"It's tough because it's a place I've spent a lot of time in and a place that has supported my career," Toms said of New Orleans. "Then all of a sudden, you see a whole city change so fast. All those poor people.

"I guess you can't feel their pain because I've never been homeless and had everything destroyed in just a matter of hours."

Reach David Westin at (706) 724-0851 or david.westin@augustachronicle.com.

Award Winners
Here are the major award winners at tonight's Golf Writers Association of America Banquet at Savannah Rapids Pavilion:
- Male Player of the Year: Tiger Woods
- Female Player of the Year: Annika Sorenstam
- Senior Player of the Year: Dana Quigley
- William D. Richardson Award: Frank (Sandy) Tatum
- Charles Bartlett Award: Kelly Gibson, Hal Sutton and David Toms
- Ben Hogan Award: Bart Bryant
- ASAP Sports/Jim Murray Award: Jack Nicklaus
- PGA of America Lifetime Achievement Award: Ron Green Sr.