Amputee Golfers Among the Best in the World

posted on Oct 26 by Guest Author in the Disability News, Fun category

In 2007, Golf Magazine named Canadian golfer Bob MacDermott the “World’s Most Amazing Golfer.” MacDermott and other equally talented amputee golfers from around the world recently got to show their stuff at the 63rd Annual National Amputee & Senior Golf Championship in Rio Verde, Arizona, sponsored by the National Amputee Golf Association (NAGA).

MacDermott settles on his prosthetic left leg, grips his club with his right hand that misses a thumb and takes a shot onto the green with the assistance of his prosthetic left arm before addressing the reporter. A day in August 1987 started out relatively well. MacDermott decided to harvest wheat with his father instead of going to a local golf tournament. He overestimated the distance between his tractor and a power pole and took it out with the cultivator. He then made a couple of bad moves that resulted in all 14,500 volts of electricity entering his hand, traveling down and out of his body through his feet.

During the 80 mph ambulance ride to the hospital, a tire blew out and sent the ambulance hurtling into a field, tossing MacDermott out the back doors and into his new life as an amputee. Because of the trauma and critical loss of time before treatment, his injuries were going septic, and he faced an ultimatum: his life or his limbs. Golf became his therapy to deal with the aftermath.

“It was either my limbs or my life. But I never lost a year of golf,” says MacDermott. “Golf became an addiction. It’s been therapy. It helps you keep your sanity when you’re trying to overcome some things. These are just opportunities to test yourself.”

One of MacDermont’s competitors, Dr. Lucian Newman, III, was a seven-time tournament champion in his hometown of Alabama until his left arm was blown off at the elbow during a hunting accident. A general surgeon, Newman returned to check on his patients 10 days after his accident and still handles a full case load. Determined not to let anything stop him from doing what he loved, Newman returned to the golf course with a prosthetic device and competed against the “normies.” He finished second.

“Golf’s harder than surgery,” reveals Newman. A crushing drive down the center of the fairway proves that he successfully masters both.

Unlike MacDermott and Newman, Mike Carver is a lifelong amputee. The Holcomb, Mississippi resident was born with a short stump where his right arm should be, he has a prosthetic instead of a right leg, and a left hand with only a thumb and two fingers that were surgically separated.

“You never miss things you never had,” Carver says. “But growing up, I was never treated any differently.”

Carver is right-handed, yet he executes powerful tee shots with his left hand in a tennis backhand fashion. He proudly boasts that his strength is in his short game.

The tournament also included some working golf professionals like Kimberly Moore. She may have been born without a right foot, but that did not stop her from becoming part of the LPGA Futures Tour, as well as leaving all the ladies in the National Amputee & Seniors Golf Championship in her dust for eight years in a row.

“Everybody treated me the same,” explains Moore of her competitive childhood. “I usually was the only one out there like that (disabled), but it was pretty normal to me.”

Another contender at the tournament, Kevin Valentine was helping a woman with a flat tire when he was hit by a car almost fourteen years ago. He later awakened in a hospital and overhead his wife talking to the doctor about someone who was about to lose a leg. He felt sorry for the guy, not realizing he was the guy they were talking about. Valentine’s golf game is as good as it was when he played in college, but his perspective will never be the same. He says he’s more compassionate in general, but less compassionate toward people who make a big deal of out things that aren’t important.

The golfers all come to the course to play and play hard. Players who lost an arm are not about to go easy on players who lost a leg. No matter how they became amputees, the golfers all share one mantra: humor is not a crutch; it’s a way of life around the golf course and “19th hole.”

For anyone interested in golfing from a wheelchair, our story about the ‘Paragolfer’ Wheelchair Designed for Golf might be of interest.

Source:
http://www.foxsportsarizona.com/10/05/11/Handicap-is-just-a-number-for-amputee-go/landing.html?blockID=575130&feedID=9060
http://www.abc15.com/dpp/sports/sports_blogs_local/rio-verde-country-club-hosts-63rd-annual-national-amputee-golf-association-national-championship
http://nagagolf.org/

Video and image sources:
www.foxsportsarizona.com
www.abc15.com

Related story:
http://blog.amsvans.com/4490-paragolfer-wheelchair-designed-for-golf/