Virginia State Golf Association

A host of PGA professionals are using golf instruction as an avenue to lend a helping hand to help injured veterans.

In central Virginia, Janet Phillips, the LPGA/PGA co-owner and head golf professional at Windy Hill Golf and Sports Complex in Midlothian, Va., has joined with McGuire Veteran’s Hospital to provide adaptive golf lessons. The project is supported by volunteers from local veterans’ organizations.

The Adaptive Golf for Injured Veterans Program began on Oct. 20 and sessions are being offered twice a week over a four-week span. Phillips, the LPGA Teaching and Club Professional of the Year in 2006, offers one-hour golf lessons as well as a bucket of balls and lunch for a very modest fee.

The program is designed to improve the mental, social, physical and emotional well-being of veterans through the game. Windy Hill has an accessible facility and a knowledgeable instructor who adapts the lessons to injured veterans.

The adaptive golf program is an example of how recreational therapy can be effectively used to help facilitate the recovery process for injured veterans.

Additional information is available by contacting Janet Phillips at (804) 794-7193.

HONORS FOR SERVICE

Meanwhile, at The Pines Golf Course in Fort Eustis, Va., PGA professional Andy Weissinger has developed and launched a wide range of programs to serve enlisted soldiers and their families, including reintegration clinics” for those service men and women returning from duty; Wounded Warrior golf; a new player mentor program and P.T. for active duty soldiers, which has attracted some 100 participants this year.

“Whether or not a person has golfed before, our efforts have been to find a way to help everyone enjoy the game,” says Weissinger, 32, a Norfolk native. “The opportunity I have to work with these soldiers and their families is rewarding, and I get energy from seeing them playing the game.”

For his efforts, Weissinger has been named the recipient of the 2009 Patriot Award from the PGA of America.

The honor is bestowed on PGA professionals who personifies patriotism through the game of golf and demonstrates unwavering commitment and dedication to the men and women who have valiantly served and protected the United States.

Weissinger may be contacted at (757) 878-2252. He will be honored at the 93rd PGA Annual Meeting in New Orleans, La., in early-November.

ENABLING HOPE

At Olney Golf Park in Olney, Md., PGA professional Jim Estes continues to build on the Wounded Warriors program that he started in 2007, after establishing the non-profit Salute Military Golf Association (www.golfsalute.org) in 2005.

Soldiers who are rehabbing at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., attend the eight-week long clinic and take lessons at Olney Golf Park in Olney, Md., where Estes is the PGA director of instruction. Those who stick around are rewarded, either with golf clubs and sometimes a golf trip.

Estes says, the retention rate of the 400 soldiers who have gone through the program is about 80 percent.

“As soon as the first swing I took and I hit the ball and it went straight, I fell in love,” says Staff Sgt. Ramon Padilla Padilla, 34, who lost his left hand in a battle in Afghanistan in July 2007. “I really thought, ‘This is something I could do for the rest of my life.’ ”

This program did not blossom without help. Estes’ bosses willingly signed off on this; Estes donates his time in the form of free lessons. The PGA of America, Disabled Sports USA, Disabled American Veterans and other PGA professionals have chipped in to help, whether with their time, money or equipment.

At Olney, there’s a one-person cart with a swivel seat and a device to attach the clubs to the front of the cart, which has an American flag painted on it with the inscription, “In Their Honor” on the driver’s side.

“The program is awesome,’’ says Sgt. First Class Luis Morales, 31, a Fredericksburg native who golfed before the war and was shot in Afghanistan. “You have a lot of wounded guys doing it together. It’s not one of those things where you feel awkward or alone and worried that other people are looking at you because you’re injured and walk funny. I walk with a limp; you can tell I’m hurt. But it’s easier to do things when the other guys are there doing something similar.

“It’s a fulfillment type of feeling.”

Virginia State Golf Association
600 Founders Bridge Blvd., Midlothian, Va. 23113
Phone: (804) 378-2300
Fax: (804) 378-2369 and (804) 378-8216

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