Former world No. 1 golfer Luke Donald, a winner of 17 pro tournaments around the world, will join U.S. Davis Cup captain and Vero Beach native son Mardy Fish as one of the special guest competitors at the 2020 Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Golf Fundraiser Monday, Jan. 13, at the Windsor Club in Vero Beach.
The annual event, hosted by Fish, is one of the major fundraisers for the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, the non-profit foundation that benefits at-risk children in Indian River County. Donald will be competing with and against patrons in this special team “shamable”- format event at the Windsor golf course.
In 2011, Donald was the first player to ever win the year-long PGA Tour money list and European Race to Dubai in the same year, also being named the PGA Player of the Year and the European Tour Golfer of the Year. A four-time member of the European Ryder Cup team, Donald first ascended to the world No. 1 golf ranking in May of 2011 after winning the BMW PGA Championships at Wentworth and buoyed by his win earlier in the year at the WGC-Accenture Match-Play Championship. He has won five titles on the PGA Tour, including the Honda Classic in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida in 2006. Donald has finished in the top 10 at all four major championships with his best finish coming with third-place showings at The Masters in 2005 and the PGA Championship in 2006
Also participating in the event will be part-time Vero Beach resident, former European Ryder Cup captain Paul McGinley, standout Major League Baseball pitcher and celebrity golf tour standout Rick Rhoden of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates and New York Yankees, famous knuckle-ball pitcher Tim Wakefield of the Boston Red Sox, Vero Beach resident and former Los Angeles Dodger Rick Monday, former tennis star, two-U.S. Open semifinalist and two-time Davis Cup champion Cliff Richey and former ATP-ranked tennis player and All-American from Harvard Thomas Blake.
Fish was recently described by six-time Masters champion Jack Nicklaus as “the best non-professional golfer that I have ever seen play,” said Nicklaus to Steve Flink of Tennis.com after playing nine holes in December of 2018 with Fish. “I have never seen anybody with as nice a golf swing and as good a golf game that doesn’t play it professionally, or as a top amateur. I was flabbergasted how good Mardy was.” While Fish ended his professional ATP tennis career at the 2015 U.S. Open, he has excelled playing competitive golf since his retirement. He has won two tournaments on the celebrity golf tour at the Diamond Resorts Invitational in Orlando in 2016 and 2018 and will try to win the event for the third time in five years just days after his appearance in Vero Beach at Windsor. In his professional tennis career, Fish won six ATP singles titles and eight ATP doubles titles in his career while also reaching a career-high singles ranking of No. 7 and winning the silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, Greece. A long-time member of the U.S. Davis Cup team as a player, Fish was named captain of the team in 2019, replacing Jim Courier, and skippered the U.S. team in November in Madrid, Spain, where the team lost to Canada and beat Italy while not advancing out of the round-robin stage of the event.
Golfers interested in participating in the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Golf Fundraiser should email Mardy Fish’s father, Tom, the President of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, at Tfish@aol.com. Paid positions for a tax deductible contribution of $500 are available as well as course signage for $300. Registration and breakfast begin at 8 a.m. with an 9 .a.m shot-gun start, followed by a 1 p.m. luncheon and awards presentation. PNC Bank, a long-time supporter of the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation, is the presenting sponsor of the event. Other sponsors include Boston Barricade, Chelsea’s Gourmet Market, Sailfish Brewing Company and Alimentari Gourmet Market.
Designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr., the 18-hole links style course at Windsor is a masterpiece in traditional golf course architecture. The par 72 course features an undulating panorama of native trees that border gentle rolling fairways, unobstructed by houses.
Founded in 2007, the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation (www.MardyFishChildrensFoundation.org and @MardyFishFound on Twitter) currently supports over 2,400 children in conjunction with several other nonprofit organization as well as 15 elementary schools and six middle schools in Indian River County, Florida by funding after-school exercise, nutritional and enrichment programs in a safe environment to prepare them for healthy, productive and successful lives. The Foundation introduced the “Six Healthy Habits” in 2012 which are Get Sleep; Drink Water; Exercise Daily, Eat Healthy; Brush and Floss; Make Friends. The Foundation’s story can also be seen here in the following video: https://www.mardyfishchildrensfoundation.org/a-message-from-mardy/ The Foundation also hosts an annual $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tennis tournament, the Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Tennis Championships, to be held this year April 23-May 3 at The Boulevard tennis club.
