Sending a golf ball 10 yards may not seem like a huge achievement, unless you’re a quadriplegic without the use of your arms and hands. Then, the ability to play golf becomes both a recreational outlet and a personal accomplishment.
Certified instructors at the Adaptive Golf Foundation in Florida gain the life-altering experience of helping people with disabilities learn to play golf.
“When someone wheels or walks into our clinic, we think about their abilities, not their disabilities,” says David Windsor, a PGA professional and director of the Adaptive Golf Foundation.
For the past 10 years, Windsor and a group of dedicated instructors, many of whom are PGA professionals, have been teaching weekly adaptive golf clinics to people with a variety of disabilities, from strokes, head injuries, and amputations to people with vision impairments and congenital challenges.
Adaptive Equipment
Once the golf instructor determines each person’s capabilities, he comes up with the right apparatus to get that person on the golf course—whether it means using existing equipment or designing something unique. For some quadriplegics, that equipment is PVC tubing that enables them to drive the ball using their teeth. For others, Velcro straps make up for lost grip.
“We once attached a golf club to a Lofstrand crutch and strapped it to the arm of a below-the-elbow-amputee,” says Ken Juhn, a PGA Professional who has been enthusiastically teaching since last September. “With the special equipment, the golfer drove the ball over 40 yards.”
Other common adaptations include adapted gloves that assist a person with poor grip strength in one hand to firmly hold the golf club for a controlled swing; flexible shafts that help players increase their club-head speed to hit shots higher and farther; bent-shaft clubs designed for people who play from a seated position; and built-up grips.
Adaptive golf carts with swivel seats and hydraulic lifts allow paraplegics and others with limited leg strength to play from an upright position.
Another way the Adaptive Golf Foundation helps golfers succeed is through the Compatibility Program, where they team up players with compatible disabilities, encouraging golfers to practice on their own and experience independence.
“We paired up a child with a visual impairment with a person with Spina Bifida,” Windsor says. “Together, as a team, they had both vision and physical ability.”
Social Benefits of Adaptive Golf
Besides the benefits of developing strength and coordination, improving flexibility, and getting out in the fresh air, simply interacting with other golfers with disabilities provides huge social benefits.
“Mentoring has become a huge component of our program,” Windsor says. “Once they learn, many golfers become mentors for newly disabled players just coming out of the hospital. We’re not just playing golf, we’re building family.”
Disabled war veterans also get the opportunity to bond with others who have walked in their boots.
“Golfers spend three or four hours together, riding around in the golf cart where they can share combat experiences and how they worked through their challenges,” Windsor notes.
Windsor is now on a mission to develop more adaptive programs in collaboration with VA facilities and military hospitals across the country to help soldiers wounded in the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq face the challenge of returning home. Developing confidence and independence on the golf course helps them do the same in their daily lives.
Resources
Disabled Sports USA/Golf
