A record 80 golfers participated in the 2022 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Golf Fundraiser on Monday, January 17 at the Windsor Club in Vero Beach, headlined by Foundation namesake and Vero Beach native son Mardy Fish, the current U.S. Davis Cup captain. Fish played the 143-yard par 3 17th hole for every foursome in the scramble format, networking and taking photos with all donors and participants. Among the celebrity competitors were former top-flight tennis stars Hall of Famer Ivan Lendl, the three-time U.S. Open champion and former world No. 1, Mikael Pernfors, the 1986 French Open singles runner-up, Richey Reneberg, the former Wimbledon and U.S. Open doubles champion, Herb Fitzgibbon, the former champion at the now Western & Southern Financial Masters in Cincinnati, and Thomas Blake, the former All-American at Harvard, as well as former Boston Red Sox pitcher Tim Wakefield.
The winner of the event, by a long shot, were the thousands of at-risk children in Indian River County who benefit from funding from the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation. The winners of the competition were Meg Brossy, Marcy Wilson, Melissa Stahel and Jeremy Nevius, who were, ironically, the last team to enter the tournament. The team shot a net score of 52, which was two shots better than the runner-up team of Pernfors, Bob and Jane Oberrender and Wendy Riefler. The team of Steve Owen, Matt Avril, Bobby Bird and Jerry Shulock won the low gross score with a 61.
Fish, who uses the Vero Beach event as a bit of a warm-up for the annual Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions pro-celebrity golf event in Orlando, pledged $10,000 to his charity for the event and challenged people to match his donation. Bob and Mike Bryan, who played a special fund-raising doubles tennis exhibition on Saturday, January 15 also at Windsor, matched Fish’s contribution. One golfer during the Monday event pledged to match Fish’s $10,000 if Fish could hit his tee shot on the par 3 17th hole within the shot of one of the low-handicap golfers in their group. After this golfer hit the ball within 15 feet of the hole, Fish calmly hit his 9-iron shot in the blustery 20 mph winds that morning to within three feet, the ball flirting with the rim of the cup, which would have been Fish’s first career hole-in-one.
Craig Dolch of TCPalm.com spoke to Fish during the event and posted this story “Mardy Fish takes a stroll down Memory Lane on visit to hometown Vero Beach” https://www.tcpalm.com/story/sports/golf/2022/01/18/vero-beach-native-mardy-fish-enjoys-round-golf-windsor-club/6557743001/
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