Jack Nicklaus lends his help to the disabled.
Posted on 21. Nov, 2009 by Dana Nichols in Courses, Golf Course Design, Pro Athlete, Public
World class golf course designer Jack Nicklaus is scouting old grounds for a new course. The new course will be a 9 hole course designed specially for veterans who have lost limbs or have other mobility issues.
“We won’t know what we’re going to do until we get up there and see the existing course,” Nicklaus said. “It’ll be very interesting to see what the course is like, what the facilities are like. Then we’ll see what we can do.”
Nicklaus will be donating his design services for the new course located at American Lakes in Tacoma, WA. The fundraiser which was arranged by Bighorn managing partner R.D. Hubbard and Bighorn member Gene Lynn brought the American Lakes project opportunity to Nicklaus’ attention through former Ryder Cup teammate Ken Still.
“Ken had never asked me for anything,” Nicklaus said. “But when he came to me with this, I just said yes. I’m in.”
The diversity of players at American Lakes is very diverse. Jim Martinson, 62, is a Vietnam Vet who lost both of his legs in a “Bouncing Betty” landmine accident in 1968 and just picked up golf in June.
Martinson is a past wheelchair division winner of the Boston Marathon and also a disabled skier that says “I turned 62, and I just thought I wanted to try this,” and “I’ve done hand cycling and skiing, but now I love golf.”
Martinson uses a specialized golf cart called a SoloRider that can travel into bunkers and onto greens and has a seat that swivels to allow him to hit the ball from the side of the cart.
Leroy Petry, 30, served five tours of duty in Afghanistan before losing his right hand and lower arm to a grenade in 2008.
“I had always been active in basketball and sports like that, and I thought I couldn’t be active because I didn’t have two hands,” Petry says. “But I thought golf was slower, so I would try that.”
Petry who plays with a prosthetic arm now plays American Lakes with his 6-year-old son and teenaged step-son.
Not only is the Bighorn fundraiser raising money for the construction but is also giving members a chance to specifically pledge funds to purchase new specialty carts.
In Nicklaus’ heyday when he was winning his 73 career titles golf for the disabled wasn’t well-known he admits
“But now I think you have kids who have been in the Iraq war and kids who have been in the Afghanistan war, and you have veterans from the Vietnam War reaching a certain age,” Nicklaus said. “This gives them a chance to remain active and be a part of sports again.”
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