Cancer affects women every day, but several high-profile cases in the golf world have brought the incurable disease into the spotlight once again.

Less than two months after professional golfer Phil Mickelson got news that his wife, Amy, had breast cancer, he found out this week that his mom, Mary, also has the disease. Mary Mickelson will undergo surgery in Houston Friday, at the same hospital in which Amy had surgery last week. The San Diego Union Tribune reports that Mickelson’s family members say the PGA Tour, players and fans have offered tremendous support to the family. Mickelson’s parents, who live in the same house in San Diego where they raised their three kids, have been present for many of Phil’s biggest wins. 

And Phil isn’t the only athlete in his family. Mom Mary was the starting point guard for a 50-and-older women’s basketball team, the San Diego Stars, that participated in the Senior Olympics in 1997; they won a bronze medal. They also won the three-on-three gold medal in 2001. She was honored as a Mother of the Year by the San Diego Chapter of the March of Dimes in 1998. She used to run a home health-care company to help finance her kids’ passion for golf.

Meanwhile, the LPGA has also been hit with cancer. Four-time major champion Meg Mallon recently lost her sister to cancer. Mallon left the LPGA tour to help take care of her sister — a mother of three who had to undergo treatments like heated chemotherapy baths. But this Thursday, when the U.S. Women’s Open officially starts, Mallon will be back on the green — with family in tow.

"It’s always been a place of comfort and joy for me," Mallon said, according to the Star-Ledger in Newark, NJ. "The last couple of years — with my sister being ill — it was tough. Playing and not playing and playing with a heavy heart. It’s nice to be out here now. I think I probably have a little bit more perspective than most players do."

Our thoughts and prayers are with both the Mickelson and Mallon families.