United Way to Host Golf Legends for Fundraiser
YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio -- The United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley and Chris and Ed Muransky will host golfing legends Jack Nicklaus and Annika Sorenstam for the United Way’s largest fundraiser of the year. The event takes place April 23 at 6:30 p.m. the Lake Club in Poland.
“Our United Way has been very fortunate to have high-profile people like Jim Tressel and Urban Meyer support our events. We will continue the tradition with Jack Nicklaus and Annika,” said Bob Hannon, president of the United Way of Youngstown and the Mahoning Valley.” He credited the Muranskys and the Lake Club’s golf director for helping pull together the event.
“I’m so pleased and excited that the Lake Club is hosting this event with two of the greatest golfers ever to play the game,” said Ed Muransky, Lake Club owner. “Our director of golf, Jerry McGee, happens to be Annika’s father-in-law and a Ryder Cup teammate of Nicklaus, so we obviously owe him a great deal of gratitude for his part in making this happen.”
At the event, Nicklaus and Sorenstam will discuss their illustrious competitive careers. Over five decades, Nicklaus won 118 professional tournament victories worldwide, 18 professional major-championship titles and four of golf’s modern majors. “The Golden Bear” is one of just five golfers to win the coveted “Grand Slam” and has been hailed the “golfer of the century” by nearly every major golf publication.
Sorenstam spent 15 years on the Ladies Professional Golf Association Tour and Ladies European Tour, winning 89 worldwide victories including 10 major championships. The Associated Press named her “Female Athlete of the Year” from 2003 to 2005. In 2008, she retired form competitive golf to start a family and embark on a new career in business. She crated the Annika brand, which includes a line of high-end female golf apparel, and established the Annika Academy, a state-of-the-art teaching facility outside of Orlando, Fla.
Nicklaus and Sorenstam have worked on several projects in the past, including when both were named global ambassadors by the International Golf Federation and helped secure golf as a sport in the 2016 Olympics.
“Annika, who is our memorial tournament honoree this year, and I have joined forces to be part of this big night,” Nicklaus said. “It’s also going to be fun to spend a night with my old friend Jerry and his wife Jill again, and probably some friends in Youngstown I haven’t seen in years.”
“I look forward to going back to the Lake Club, which is a special place for us as we celebrated both our children’s baptisms’ there,” Sorenstam said. “My husband’s parents, Jerry and Jill McGee, still live in the area, so it will be great to join them, along with Jack and Barbara Nicklaus and others to help raise money for the United Way of Youngstown and Mahoning Valley.”
Seating is limited for the event, so anyone interested in attending is encouraged to make reservations as soon as possible by calling the United Way office at 330 746 8494 or registering online at the United Way’s website. The cost is $3,000 for a full table of 10 and $1,500 for a half-table of five.
Published by The Business Journal, Youngstown, Ohio.
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