By Randy Walker
@TennisPublisher
Mardy Fish, the former top 10 tennis star, Olympic silver medalist and current U.S. Davis Cup captain, is set to make some sports and tennis history on the PGA golf tour.
Fish will make his debut on the professional golf tour at the PGA Tour’s 3M Classic in Minnesota July 21-24 becoming a rare athlete to play professionally in more than one sport.
“I’m kind of a country club Bo Jackson” Fish said to Tennis.com last year of his excellence in both tennis and golf, referring to the former Heisman Trophy winning football player Bo Jackson who played for the National Football League’s Los Angeles Raiders and Major League Baseball’s Kansas City Royals.
Fish was born in Edina, Minnesota and while he grew up in Vero Beach, Florida, he always maintained his allegiance to Minnesota and Minnesota sports teams. As I wrote in January of 2021 in the story “Mardy Fish Deserves “Wild Cards” But Not In Tennis” here http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/19495 “Fish was born in Minnesota and, as you can see from his @MardyFish Twitter profile, is a die-hard Minnesota sports fans. Thus an invite into the state’s PGA Tour event, the 3M Championship would be appropriate and receive significant local attention.”
Hollis Cavner, the 3M Championship Tournament Director, agreed when he announced that Fish would receive a “wild card” (or sponsor’s exemption as it is known in the golf industry) into the event. “This guy can play. He will not embarrass himself,” said Cavner. “He’s a great golfer and it provides an interesting storyline as we get closer to the tournament.”
After he finished his ATP Tour tennis career in 2015, Fish began to expand on his love and prowess at golf, playing competitive events in lower-level pro tours – the All-American Gateway Tour and the Golden State Tour with mixed success, but became the first alternate in U.S. Open local qualifying in 2014 and 2015.
He soon became part of the celebrity golf tour, where he found resounding success. He has won the two most prestigious celebrity golf events, the Hilton Grand Vacations Tournament of Champions three times and the 2020 American Century Celebrity Golf Championship at Lake Tahoe, shooting a 63 en route, breaking the course record set by Lee Trevino. He also beat former Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo earlier this year at a new ClubCorp Celebrity pro event in Dallas.
During a charity event in 2018, he had a chance to play nine holes with Jack Nicklaus, who was amazed at the raw talent of Fish, calling him “The best non-professional golfer I’ve ever seen play” (Read the full article here: http://www.worldtennismagazine.com/archives/16360)
Although he labels himself as the “Country Club Bo Jackson” Fish actually learned both sports at public facilities, on the tennis courts at Riverside Park and the Sandridge public golf course in Vero Beach, Florida. He returns annually to Vero Beach in January to host his Mardy Fish Children’s Foundation Golf Fundraiser at The Windsor Club, where his father Tom is the head tennis pro.
While Fish won’t be the first pro athlete from another sport to play a pro tour golf event, he will join a very select number of former top tennis players to also play mainstream pro tour level golf. The most successful top-flight tennis player to also play professional golf was Ellsworth Vines. Vines holds the distinction – along with a man named Frank Conner – of being the only men to play in the modern-day U.S. Open (or the U.S. Nationals pre-1968) and the golf U.S. Open. Vines abandoned his tennis career in 1940 to turn his attention to competitive golf. He not only was a competitor at the golf U.S. Open, but in the Masters and the PGA Championship as well. His best finish in the golf majors being a tie for third at the 1951 PGA (he was a losing semifinalist in the match-play format.) In stroke-play majors, his best finish was a tie for 14th at the U.S. Open in 1948 and 1949. His best finish at the Masters was a tie for 24th in 1947.
Frank Conner was a standout American tennis player in the amateur era, competing in the U.S. National in 1965, 1966 and 1967, reaching the second round in 1967. He went on to become a tennis All-American at Trinity University in Texas, one of the top tennis schools at the time. However, he had also picked up and excelled at golf as well and, realizing he could make more money in pro golf than tennis, turned into a golf professional, qualifying for the PGA Tour in 1975. His best finish at a major came at the 1981 U.S. Open at Merion where he finished tied for sixth. He never won an official PGA Tour title, but lost in a playoff to Tom Watson at the 1982 Heritage Classic on Hilton Head Island, S.C. and to Dave Barr at the 1981 Quad Cities Open.
Former world No. 42 Scott Draper of Australia also played professional golf in Australia from 2005 to 2008. He won a “lower-tour” event, the New South Wales PGA Championship, in 2007.
Sherwood Stewart won 52 ATP doubles titles, including three major doubles titles as well as two mixed doubles majors. He has excelled in competitive golf after his tennis career, competing in five British Senior Open championships.
Althea Gibson, the two-time U.S. and Wimbledon champion, is credited of not only breaking the color barrier in tennis in 1950, but in professional women’s golf as well in 1964 when she joined the LPGA Tour. Gibson played professional golf until 1978 and, despite being one of the top 50 money winners for five years, her career earnings did not exceed $25,000. Her best finish was a tie for second, losing in a three-way playoff at the Len Immke Buick Open in Dublin, Ohio. “Althea might have been a real player of consequence had she started when she was young,” legendary golf player and commentator Judy Rankin once said of Gibson. “She came along during a difficult time in golf, gained the support of a lot of people, and quietly made a difference.”
