To the Indian River Golf Foundation
My name is Beck Fox and I am a junior at the U. of West Florida where I am on the golf team. As it sounds like I’ve been away from the IRGF for a while now, it has still left lasting impacts on me today.
First, I want to start off with Mr. Van Dyke. When I showed up as a young 13-year-old to my first IRGF golf tournament, I didn’t know anyone and felt out of place. Until I meet Mr. Van Dyke. He walks up to you with a smile, a hello, and a friendly handshake. Just about as greeting as you could possibly be to a nervous kid. Through the year he taught me so many life lessons about golf that stick with me to this day. He taught me to always love the game no matter if you’re playing good or bad. That I should always go out and have fun on the golf course and to never let golf upset me too much. He taught me the sport of the game, sportsmanship.
I learned to always greet my fellow competitors, never root against them, and to always be friendly on the golf course. He also taught my parents a very good lesson which has helped me succeed. He told them that no matter how much they want me to play golf, that it ultimately falls in the hands of myself wanting to play the game. They never forced me to play golf, I always wanted to be on the course because of my love for the game. These things have helped me to become a better person to myself and others on and off the golf course. I will always look to Mr. Van Dyke as one of my biggest mentors and I owe a lot to him.
Now the IRGF, this foundation helped me gain my first steps to becoming the golfer I am today. It gave me fun competition, lifelong friends, and the happiness I needed around a golf course. I wasn’t the best golfer at 13 years old, and I definitely wasn’t the best, but at IRGF your skill set doesn’t matter.
Everyone is a winner and you must make sure that your enjoying every second of it. IRGF was an awesome foundation to play golf with not only for the lessons and the friends but for the golf. I got to play some of the best courses in Vero because of IRGF and most of you won’t figure that out until later but that’s an awesome thing. This foundation was the building block I needed to get my golf career on track. As I got older, I took the competition more serious because of my drive to succeed. It helped me want to succeed and get better every day so I could be the best I could be.
By Beck Fox (2017)