Mardy Fish, who won silver at the 2004 Athens Olympics in tennis, has made his debut on the PGA Tour, the highest level and impact golf circuit in the world. The one from Minnesota, who managed to enter the top-10 of the ATP circuit (became number seven), and after a life of great emotional swings and psychological and anxiety problems, now enjoys what may be one of the “best opportunities of my life” according to the athlete himself.
The brand new signing of the 3M Open went through serious episodes of mental disorders, mainly anxiety due to the pressure to which elite tennis pushed him, to the point of not playing a Grand Slam match against Federer in 2012.
According to a Netflix documentary in which his story is told, all this anxiety was caused by a strict and hard diet that he had to carry out to raise his competitive level, something that he could not stand and ended up leading to a constant and increasing problem.
Mardy Fish, statements
This forced him to hang up his racket very prematurely and when all the media spotlights were on him, carrying the weight of having to be the benchmark for American tennis. In statements by the former tennis player himself, he has been practicing sports throughout his life, playing baseball, golf and tennis at the age of 14, when he opted for the latter.
Fish has confessed that “from a very young age I have had a great passion for hitting balls, being for me a way of escape and enjoyment, as is the case with golf”. After the episodes that forced him to leave professional tennis, he opted for golf as therapy, so that he has come to play in non-professional celebrity tournaments, managing to win the Diamond Resorts Tournament of Champions up to three times.
Mardy’s level has caught the attention of great references in the world of golf, such as Jack Nicklaus, who has even said that “he is the best non-professional golfer I have seen play” In addition to this, the former number seven in the world is currently the captain of the United States of the Davis Cup, something that is very comfortable for him and where he is enjoying tennis.
With all this, there have been many times that the American has wanted to refer to the importance of mental health, worrying about other athletes and wanting to take an active part in this serious problem, which has increased in recent years with the pandemic, as he himself has confessed.
With all these incentives, the golfer tried his luck yesterday, getting a +10 card (81 shots and the last one after the first day), making history by being the first tennis player to play a PGA Tour tournament. Without a doubt, it has been a milestone in American and world sports for a Fish who has shown the world that with willpower and sacrifice he has been able to fulfill one of his dreams after the darkest stage of his life.
