Jack Nicklaus, the greatest golfer and golfing mind who ever lived and holder of a record 18 major championships, has encouraged former U.S. Davis Cup star Mardy Fish to pursue a professional golf career.
Speaking to tennis historian and “Greatest Tennis Matches of All Time” author Steve Flink on Tennis.com, Nicklaus called Fish “the best non-professional golfer that I have ever seen play“ and said he was “flabbergasted” at how good Fish was.
The two played golf in early December at the Fore Love charity event in South Florida that is hosted by Nicklaus and the Bryan Brothers Mike and Bob and told Flink that he encouraged Fish to pursue a pro golf career. Flink wrote that Nicklaus said to the 37-year-old Fish “you are not getting any younger, and you have got 10 years if you want to play competitive golf professionally.”
“We played nine holes and he drove the ball on every single hole in the middle of the fairway, further than I have seen anybody hit it who is not a professional,” Nicklaus told Flink. “He shot 31 for nine holes. I said, ‘Mardy, what are you doing? You have got a talent and you are young enough to take advantage of it. You need to go play golf.’”
In addition to still playing competitive tennis events on the Invesco Series QQQ champions tour, Fish plays on the Celebrity Golf Tour and has won the Diamond Resorts Invitational in Orlando in 2016 and 2018. He also plays events for charities, including hosting his own Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Golf Fundraiser on Monday, January 14, 2019 at the prestigious Windsor Club in Vero Beach, Florida. (Interested parties can sign up to play or sponsor and get more information here: http://www.tennisgrandstand.com/2018/12/14/mardy-fish-praised-by-jack-nicklaus-to-host-foundation-golf-fundraiser-in-vero-beach-florida-january-14-2019/
Fish, who reached a career-high ATP ranking of No. 7 and won the silver medal at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, ended his professional ATP tennis career at the 2015 U.S. Open. He has also been close to joining Ellsworth Vines and Frank Conner as the only men to play in the both U.S. Open in tennis and golf as he was a first alternate after U.S. Open golf qualifying in 2014 and 2015. At the tennis U.S. Open, he reached the quarterfinals in 2008.
Read the full Steve Flink story here: http://www.tennis.com/pro-game/2018/12/jack-nicklaus-tennis/78331/
