BEDMINSTER, N.J. — We’re driving a golf cart the wrong way down Fiddler’s Elbow’s Forest Course discussing death. Behind the wheel is Hailey Rounsaville, and she’s reminiscing about Timothy Piazza’s all-too-short life.

Back in the spring of 2017, her friend Timothy, a 19-year-old sophomore at Penn State, was pressured into running an alcohol-infused obstacle course called “The Gauntlet” as part of a hazing ritual. He ultimately fell on the basement stairs of the house, knocking him unconscious, and was in and out of it into the wee hours of the morning.

The next day, after suffering a ruptured spleen and going into class IV hemorrhagic shock, Timothy was pronounced dead. Not long after, the fraternity chapter closed following charges of involuntary manslaughter, which were eventually dropped.

Timothy’s parents have since launched a nationwide anti-hazing campaign “to prevent another shattered family,” shared father Jim Piazza, and to press legislatures in all 50 states to toughen anti-hazing laws. The couple goes to schools across the United States speaking about their son and cautioning young adults away from hazing in any form.

Seven years later, Timothy Piazza is still at the top of everyone’s minds, partially due to a golf charity in Timothy’s honor that focuses on providing prostheses for children and adults with missing limbs. Timothy was adamant about helping kids and building them prostheses, and now countless kids’ lives will change through his legacy. A lack of insurance, or a system that makes it difficult to foot the bill, will no longer get in the way of kids wanting to be kids.

More than $1.5 million later, the Timothy J. Piazza Memorial Foundation had its eighth outing at Fiddler’s Elbow on Aug. 12, and Timothy is far from forgotten. Nearly 300 golfers (and non-golfers alike) show up each year and test their game on three punishing but beautiful courses at the Bedminster club. More than 160 children have been helped so far, now given the money to get past insurance blocks to afford and maintain prostheses for all sorts of activities.

In total, the foundation has provided 200 prostheses, along with 25+ assistive devices to children and young adults.

Rounsaville is still driving as she remembers her family friend. “It’s not like Tim was an angel sent from God to Earth,” she says. “He was just a normal kid who was good-hearted and he looked out for people. It’s very rare that everybody wants to do the right thing and help out in times of need.

“That hole in your heart never goes away, but it’s about so much more than that now. It’s taken on a life of its own.”

As she gets lost in thought about her friends, she’s also physically lost. Eventually, she hits an impasse and turns the cart around. Before long, we’re back on the course. She keeps on going, because what else is she going to do?

• • •

Senate Majority Leader Jake Corman, R-Benner Township, speaks out front of the Centre County Courthouse to introduce anti-hazing legislation named after Timothy Piazza on March 23, 2018. Tim’s parents, Jim and Evelyn stood with Corman.

Centre Daily Times

Known for his gregarious and kindhearted personality, Timothy had more than enough friends and supporters who wanted to do something to remember him after his untimely passing. It’s ultimately fitting that the focus of the event is on children.

“He always had an affinity for kids,” said Evelyn Piazza, Timothy’s mom. “He was the one in the supermarket who would play peekaboo with the little kid in the shopping cart. He would build sandcastles on the beach with the kids, like after the senior prom, he was playing in the sand with kids.”

It wasn’t long after his death before an idea was brought to his parents. Virginia Alling, a colleague of Jim Piazza and managing director at PNC Bank, had a vision for her grieving friend in Timothy’s honor.

Timothy was studying mechanical engineering at Penn State with the desire to eventually design prostheses for children in need—a niche field but one that he got obsessed with in high school after seeing a veteran solider with a prosthesis in an airport—and Alling knew that the community would come out for the Piazzas, especially to raise money for a good cause.

“Anybody that knows Tim and his family knows that he was the most inclusive, sports-minded, multitasker, positive person you could possibly imagine,” Alling said. “So when this tragedy occurred, one of the first things I wanted to know from Jim was in terms of his engineering major at Penn State. What did he want to do at Penn State? And he wanted to design prosthetic limbs for underprivileged children. So I was trying to think, in this hour of despair, how to bring something really positive out of something extremely tragic. The idea was to continue Tim’s wish.”

Within three months, Alling, the Piazzas and close friends like Larry and Kathy Prager were able to finagle the first outing at Fiddler’s Elbow.

“Interestingly enough, when I brought the idea up to Jim, his first response was: ‘No one will come,’” she adds. “And this is the eighth year. All three courses, we sell out every year. It’s unreal. I’ve learned a lot about the prosthetic community through Tim.”

An annual auction became part of the event, with many bidding on various golf trips, sports memorabilia and more esoteric prizes like a multi-course meal cooked by Tim’s brother Michael. On the docket this year were golf outings at renowned courses like Baltrusol, Metedeconk, Bayonne, Eastward Ho!, Somerset Hills, Pine Barrens, Medalist and Medinah. There was also a live, not-so-silent auction for the opportunity to play golf with Alice Cooper, as long as you were a 20-handicap or better.

And, if golf isn’t your forte, there was the equivalent of a sports and music gallery up for grabs: A Taylor Swift guitar, a Michael Jordan and Tiger Woods framed photo, Bruce Springsteen lyrics and tickets to the 2025 U.S. Open on Sunday at Oakmont Country Club.

Beyond the money raised in the eight Piazza outings, the foundation has created a hub for doctors, orthotists and prosthetists to come together, network and think up additional ways to provide for those with limb deficiencies.

“I think he would have been super happy to see all the people that have been helped,” said Timothy’s childhood friend Dan Prager. “I also think he would have been absolutely horrified to see his picture up all over this event in big letters. He did not like being the center of attention as weird a dichotomy as that is.

“He would have definitely loved seeing all the kids helped. He loved kids. He was goofy, he was funny. My younger brother and my younger sister knew him basically from birth. I don’t want to say it was one of his first words, but I have a very vivid memory of my little brother. One of his earliest words was Timmy.”

MORE: The inspiring stories of four adaptive golfers—and what they can teach us

• • •

An invited speaker for the 2023 outing, Dr. Hannah Aura Shoval of Atlantic Health System has been one of many medical professionals to heap praise on the Piazza Foundation and what it’s doing for kids around the U.S.

“A lot of insurances will only replace the prosthetics once a year,” Shoval said. “Well, kids grow every second. You know what I mean? You blink an eye and the kid is like a foot taller. So sometimes, you can’t wait a year, you need a new one or you need one for running or one for an instrument. And then, in that case, we submit it to the foundation. And then they review them and they have been very generous in approving the prosthesis.”

Things may be getting better soon, at least in New Jersey, but time will tell. Until then, insurance might reject these secondary prostheses, and foundations like Live Like Tim are a critical backup, making it so kids don’t have to worry about wearing their prosthetic limbs out.

Meanwhile, Shoval—along with Caryn Gottfried from OrthoPediatrics—has started a pediatric prosthetic clinic at Atlantic Health System. The Piazza Foundation will be assisting in funding children when needed. The aforementioned Atlantic Health System, OrthoPediatrics, Hanger, Children’s Specialized Hospital and Shriners Hospitals for Children are just a small collection of medical organizations that have found a home with Live Like Tim. Every time you speak to an employee from any of these associations, they immediately have a favorite story that they need to tell you in which a kid was able to accomplish something new due to the dynamic fundraising and contributions from Live Like Tim.

Kevin Carroll is the vice president of prosthetics for Hanger Clinic, one of the biggest prosthetics and orthotics providers in the United States, and has been a supporter of the Piazza Foundation’s work for years now. He lit up as he told the following story:

“One young girl was missing her leg all the way up to the hip. She wanted to run and we said, OK. If you want to run, not too many people run even with hips, but if you want to run, I think we can get you to where you can run and jump and skip with a running prosthesis. We reached out to Kathy [Prager] and the foundation and this happened to be around Christmas time. So we felt that, you know, if Santa Claus was going to bring a running leg, wouldn’t that be fantastic? So again, the Live Like Tim Foundation stepped up to the plate and on Christmas, literally Christmas morning, this little girl had a running leg under the Christmas tree.”

• • •

The Live Like Tim Fiddler’s Elbow golf outing has grown in stature over its eight years with major sponsors like PNC and Deloitte, but one of the more fun outing relationships is with BMW, and the chance for a fully-covered three-year lease if you hit a hole-in-one on a designated par 3. It hasn’t happened yet.

However, there was a hole-out eagle this year by Calli Clark, who is the director of orthotics and prosthetics at Shriners Hospitals for Children and was the 2024 event’s invited speaker.

Clark just so happened to also be one of 10 junior golfers chosen by Golf Digest back in 2000 as potential “faces” of golf’s future. She placed second in Maryland as a high school freshman, then won it all as a sophomore. She ultimately went down the medical path, but still tees it up often and was even on the winning Fiddler’s Elbow foursome a few years ago.

Clark’s speech gave some background on her medical history and Shriners’ ongoing work and advances with prostheses, but she specifically identified why the Piazza Foundation is so critical; it’s a Plan B when insurance fails, which it sadly does quite often.

“How many kids with an upper extremity limb difference might not be able to play golf because they think they can’t hold a club,” she asked. “Well, there’s an activity-specific terminal device for golf. How many kids are we not able to help because they don’t know what’s possible? You can let them know what’s possible.”

Clark also read from one of the rejection letters from an insurance carrier after asking for coverage for a new prostheses.

“Sport recreation work attachment is denied and not medically necessary,” Clark said. “Processes for the upper limb are considered not medically necessary and therefore not covered when used solely for activities not essential to an activity of daily living, such but not limited to when used for sports, recreation, or employment.”

The Piazza Foundation is one of many charities and philanthropy funds allowing kids and their families to bypass these stringent restrictions with the premise: Is there anything more “necessary” than a kid wanting to play a sport?

• • •

While golfers were accidentally finding inventive ways to hit balls into the water or behind trees and sometimes even in the right direction, Michaella Metz was behind her golf cart pushing it out of the high grass and back onto the cart path.

The 14-year-old who was born with fibular hemimelia is one of many teens who has been helped by the Piazza Foundation and has become a mainstay at the Fiddler’s Elbow outing. She’s a multi-sport athlete who recently made varsity cheerleading as an underclassman, pitches for her softball team, has been dancing since she was a year old and plays many other sports in her free time.

All of this activity has made it so that she needs certain prostheses depending on what she’s doing and insurance rarely covers two, let alone anything more than that, not even mentioning the major restorations frequently required. Her prosthetist Michael Moschella of Hanger is almost on call at this point trying to keep up with Michaella’s nonstop movement.

“I remember being alive and then just having a prosthetic leg,” Michaella said. “If it’s a dance day, I’ll keep it on for the whole day and it won’t come off. But I have softball. I’ll keep this one, then I’ll change the blade and then when softball’s over. I’ll switch back and then just go to bed and then wake up the next morning with the same one.

“And then for the skin one—the regular skin one—that doesn’t move. If I’m not wearing heels, I’ll wear that just to look nice. And then if I wear the heel one, then I’d go to banquets for cheer, or for parties. If I’m going with my friends, I’ll just wear my regular one.”

This might sound like an intricate dance, but is this really any different than you changing your footwear depending on the activity? This all allows Michaella the chance to do what any of her classmates can, and even more.

Fiddler’s Elbow after 2024 Piazza Foundation Golf Outing

Greg Gottfried

It’s become a tradition for Michaella to dart around the Fiddler’s Elbow courses on a golf cart, checking in on the players, but mostly worrying her mother and freaking out accompanying Hanger passengers with her high-speed driving.

Timothy Piazza—learning how to play golf mostly due to his girlfriend’s obsession with the sport—would almost certainly be driving around with Michaella getting into mischief if he were still with us.

It’s fitting that a fellow live wire has become a constant at the outing driving into perilous situations and delighting friends and family alike.

• • •

In early July, the New Jersey Senate passed a bill, sponsored by Senator Troy Singleton and pushed by the Piazzas, which would force insurance to cover athletic prostheses across the state. The Senate passed the bill unanimously.

“Sports provide physical, mental, and social benefits, and are incredibly impactful on the lives of children and adults alike. Sadly, individuals with prosthetics often lead more sedentary lives or risk injury when using improper devices because of the high cost of a second prosthetic, which are not covered by insurance,” Singleton said in a press release. “This legislation will expand the horizons for residents with physical disabilities throughout the state, and most especially for kids who simply want to play.”

• • •

Earlier this summer, 16-year-old Derek Adler was frustrated with a faulty prosthesis. His father had passed away a few months earlier, and Derek was in Long Beach, N.Y., visiting his aunt Stacy and trying to get in some sun.

The left leg “wasn’t what it should be,” not staying in place due to sand and water getting inside of it, and his aunt soon reached out to her best friend, Suzanne Kiall, who after a rapid game of telephone connected the Adlers with the Piazza Foundation. Kathy Prager immediately responded and Live Like Tim will help Adler out after the quickest of turnarounds. In just a few weeks time, Adler was fitted for a new leg, which will help him move better, run and continue the basketball and boxing that he’s been able to do on a not-as-high-tech prosthesis.

“I went to buy Kathy a little thank-you gift in Morristown,” Kiall said. “I never met her, so I don’t even know who I’m buying it for. But you know, girls, Brighton Jewelry something. And I’m paying for it. And the girl goes, ‘Oh, this is pretty.’ I’m like, ‘It is, right? I hope so. I don’t even know the lady I’m buying it for.’ She goes, ‘Why are you buying a stranger a gift?’ I gave her a Cliffnotes.

“Her face went white. Her sister was Timothy’s girlfriend back when all this happened. Oh God, yeah. It was just so crazy. All the connections.”

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This article was originally published on golfdigest.com