By Andrew Adler
Community Editor
There are plenty of opportunities in Louisville to swing a golf club, in venues ranging from the poshest, most precisely groomed courses to the least luxurious fairways in a neighborhood park. But few offer the particular mix of competitiveness, camaraderie and unalloyed fun you find at the 22nd Republic Bank Players Challenge, which benefits Jewish Family & Career Services and the Trager Family JCC.
This year’s Players Challenge arrives on Monday, Aug. 31 at the Standard Club. Team registration opens at 10:30 a.m., with a Shotgun Start slated for noon. And if you simply can’t wait for the main event, stop by the Trager Family JCC Sunday, Aug. 30 from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. for the inaugural edition of Mahjong for a Mission — let the tiles fall where they may.
One fellow sure to be on the Standard course is Mitch Greenfield, chair of the volunteer committee producing the golf event. An executive with Humana and one of the area’s most avid (and successful) long-distance runners, in golfing Greenfield is both passionate and graciously self-effacing.
“I’ve been playing golf since I was six, but I wouldn’t necessarily equate time with skill,” he says, adding that “I’m like a 13 handicap, which is fine but nothing crazy.”
Most important, Greenfield emphasizes, is the Players Challenge’s reason for being.
“It’s an opportunity to help two great organizations,” he says. “What stands out for me is that they’re both such wide supporters of the community. And while they have Jewish affiliations, their support of Louisville goes far beyond the Jewish community.”
Indeed, dollars raised by the RPBC “are critical, especially with all the challenges today,” Greenfield says. It’s a big reason why this is his fifth consecutive year as golf committee chair — a post he’s juggling with a new, three-year commitment as Congregation Adath Jeshurun’s house chair, in charge of maintaining the building and its surrounding grounds.
Meanwhile, Greenfield and his golf committee colleagues have spent many hours designing a benefit that — even after more than two decades — remains fresh and engaging.
“Every year we try to raise the bar and figure out how to improve the event,” he says, “both for the players to have a better experience, but also to find more opportunities to support the community.” In other words, identifying strategies “to make the event more profitable and increase the opportunity to give and support.”
Along the way, “Standard has been a great partner for us,” Greenfield added, acting as a kind of living laboratory for successive improvements.
“For three years now we’ve added a ‘Hit It and Win It’ — we’ve got bourbon bottles, gift cards and other stuff on the putting green, and if you hit it with your putt, you get it. And if you miss, try again.”
This year’s biggest addition is Mahjong for a Mission, which leverages a game whose devotees are, well, unabashedly devoted.
“Mahjong is great for getting not just women, but also men, together,” says Deborah Goldberg, who is chairing the mahjong committee alongside Melanie Parker.
It’s a multi-generational game, too. “My daughters and I play, and my mother plays,” Goldberg says. “I know we’re going to have players in their early 20s, maybe teens, and some in their late 80s and hopefully 90s — and everywhere in between.”
The game offers broad appeal, she adds, “whether you’re a beginner, an intermediate, or you’ve gone to various tournaments.
At Mahjong for a Purpose, teams “can sign up and have your own table of four,” Goldberg says, “or you can come, and we’ll put you at a level you’re comfortable with.” (Registration is at 9 a.m., with gameplay beginning at 10 a.m.)
Even Greenfield is finding himself swept up in Mahjong momentum. The game “is taking the world by storm,” he says. “It’s not like a golf scramble, per se, just a fun way for everyone to get together, play and support the cause.”
The golf side, too, is seeing new ways to increase participation. “One thing we’ve added this year is an Under 30 tier, aimed especially at providing newcomers with the ability “to support at a lower contribution” — $250 instead of $350, Greenfield says.
“We’re trying to get the next generation involved,” he explains, mentioning that not only is this “a great opportunity not to work on a Monday,” but also a way of aiding two worthwhile organizations.
“Our goal this year is to have about 110 golfers,” Greenfield says, “so we need all the support we can get. And once everyone is back in Standard’s clubhouse, bring on the newly designed “after-golf celebration,” which Greenfield promises has been refreshed with new music, helping to make the dynamic “a little more social than it’s been in previous years.”
And while there will be food, don’t expect a return of a certain culinary offering.
“Two years ago we brought back the fried chicken dinner,” Greenfield recalls. “I think the resounding feedback was, after being outside all day in 80 or 90-degree weather, fried chicken is not what people want — myself included.”
Poultry aside, “one thing we’re trying to do is compile all the winners from the last 21 years and get a plaque at the JCC in the Fink Family Trophy Case by the basketball court, to represent the totality of the event, because 22 years is no small feat,” Greenfield says.
“And we do have to say ‘Thank You’ to Republic Bank for their sponsorship year after year. They’ve been tremendous.”
To register for the 2026 Republic Bank Players Challenge, go online at jewishlouisville.org/golf.