by Mike Sharkey
Staff Writer
Former Players Championship winner Mark McCumber was right at home. So was former Jacksonville Jaguars tight end Pete Mitchell, past Players Championship Chairman Tim Tresca and Players Championship Executive Director Ron Cross.
Of course they were. They were all on the golf course on a perfect Monday morning. Sort of.
The group, along with several others, was actually at Nemours Children’s Clinic where an ad libbed putt-putt course had been created. As part of the PGA Tour’s Giving Back week, McCumber and the rest served as caddies for several kids with serious health issues and all of whom currently receive support from the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund.
“It’s a reminder of what’s important,” said McCumber, who spent 30 years playing professionally, won the 1998 Players and was joined by his son Tyler, who plays golf for Nease High. “I can only imagine how scared and the nervousness these families feel.”
The Jay Fund was created in 1996 in honor of Jay McGillis, a football player at Boston College who played for Coughlin. McGillis developed leukemia and the story of his strength while battling the disease affected Coughlin so greatly he created the Jay Fund in an effort to help families of children with cancer and leukemia. That help, according to Jay Fund Executive Director Keli Coughlin, comes in many forms. Monday, the Tour’s “Giving Back” started at Nemours with the golf outing and a $25,000 donation to the Jay Fund.
“We use the money to support the mission, support the Jay Fund and make improvements,” said Coughlin, who is Tom’s daughter.
Coughlin explained how the Jay Fund paid for the new waiting room on the eighth floor at Nemours in 2000.
“We refurbished the whole room,” she said of the room that’s filled with chairs for the kids and the parents, toys and has a great view of the St. Johns River. “We wanted to make it more comfortable.”
McCumber has three grandchildren — the youngest was born just six days ago — and seemed more than at home in a room full of little kids and their parents. Having won the Players and nine other Tour events, McCumber is familiar with the Tour’s charitable policies. He said he realizes how valuable the volunteers are at tournaments and what role they have played in the Tour’s ability to give over $1 billion back to the communities, with over $28 million of that locally.
“That’s a lot of aid for people who need it,” said McCumber.
In years past, the Tour has held an annual “Giving Back” luncheon, usually at a local hotel ballroom. In an effort to spread the event area-wide, the Tour is having events all week, culminating with Saturday’s “A Cornerstone of the Community” event at The First Tee of Jacksonville. Immediate-past Players Chair Tim Tresca said he likes the idea of a week’s worth of events.
“I am having a fantastic time. This is much better than a luncheon,” said Tresca. “This puts a face on what we do. It brings home The Players Championship and it does it for the whole community. I have been involved with the Tom Coughlin Jay Fund since its inception. It’s good to be associated with them.”