ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. – The Wiffle ball wobbled in the wind but Harry Higgs whacked it and dashed off, or at least his version of dashing, in the direction of first base as the PGA Tour husbands powered past the PGA Tour wives 9-8 in the 11th annual RSM Wiffle Ball Classic.
The score itself was immaterial – although tell that to the guys who earned bragging rights for an entire year – because the real winners were the Boys and Girls Club of Southeast Georgia, who received a check for $25,000 that will go a long way to the organization’s playground initiative.
On a chilly, windy Tuesday evening at Frederica Academy Baseball Field on the Golden Isles of Georgia, Tour pros such as Ryan Brehm, Hank Lebioda and Brendon Todd and their spouses along with local youths from the Boys and Girls Club teamed up for a good cause. For the second year in a row, members of the Savannah Bananas, the popular minor league baseball team, participated in the game.
“You have all these girls out there and they can care less about who these PGA Tour players are. They’re more interested in the Savannah Bananas or the boys on the other team, to be perfectly honest,” said Chelsey Brehm, Ryan’s wife and the Tour Wives Association vice president of outreach. “We’re just a bunch of normal people out there raising money.”
The PGA Tour Wives Association is a 501-C3 that dates to 1988 and has contributed more than $5 million to the local communities it visits. With Tour events serving as a major platform for charity, the wives found themselves in a unique position to be an effective source of funds and support for the charities and the children they benefit.
The guys wore powder blue uniforms and the girls pink. Tour veteran Josh Teater took the mound to face his wife Ashley, who ripped an infield single, and Austin Cook, who was catching gave batting tips to one of the kids like a swing coach on the range. Getting tickets to a Savannah Bananas game is almost as hard as getting them for a Taylor Swift concert so having five of their players and the Bananas mascot, Split, as the ultimate hype men for the event, provided a show of their own.
The Wives Association also holds an annual golf tournament during the WM Phoenix Open in which the pros caddie for their wives, visit St. Jude’s Hospital, shop for new shoes and beds for those in need and deliver blessings in a backpack among the 15 or so events it annually hosts each year.
“This is my go-to event, the one I’ll never miss because I love seeing the kids interact with the players,” said Kaillie Higgs.
