CHARLOTTE, NC – AUGUST 13: Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland plays his shot from the second tee during the final round of the 2017 PGA Championship at Quail Hollow Club on August 13, 2017 in Charlotte, North Carolina. (Photo by Stuart Franklin/Getty Images)

Rory McIlroy went yard at Yankee Stadium this week, not with a wooden bat, but with a six-iron.

Bigger than that home run was the one he nailed spending time hitting golf balls with Mary Browder Howell, a 14-year-old cancer survivor.

Mary had the chance to hit balls into Yankee Stadium with the 28-year-old four-time major winner after FedEx announced it would be making a $1 million donation to St. Jude Children’s Research Center in McIlroy’s name.

Mary was treated at the hospital for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and aspires to work for St. Jude one day as a fundraising spokesperson.

McIlroy’s foundation partners with children’s charities across the globe, and he’s inspired by each one he works with, especially St. Jude’s, where kids like Mary show him what it means to fight.

“I’ve spent a lot of time with kids in similar positions and I always learn the values of perseverance, believing, fighting, staying positive,” he told For The Win. “It’s inspiring to see someone come through a battle like that and be as successful as she has been since, it’s incredible. Even for someone like me, who’s been able to be successful with what I’ve done, to see someone come through a battle like that, it’s 100 times harder than anything I’ve had to experience in my life.”

What a way to kick off the FedEx Cup playoffs.