Playing with a Disability & Winning PGA Tournaments

By: Bob Boldt


In addition to George Archer (http://www.cybergolf.com/golf_news/the_worlds_best_shortgame_player), who I rank No. 1 on this list, there are several other great golfers who've overcome physical hardships to excel on the course and in competition. Here's a look at them.

Calvin Peete

12 PGA titles; two-time Ryder Cup player; Low Scoring Average in 1984 on PGA Tour; most wins by an African-American (before Tiger Woods).

Calvin overcame a broken arm that was never set properly. His deformed left arm was smaller than average size. Calvin was not physically strong and the arm would not straighten through impact in his golf swing. Calvin hit his first golf ball at the ripe old age of 23, and through thousands of hours of exercise and despite never having a golf lesson, qualified for the PGA Tour nine years later at the age of 32.

Miller Barber

Professional wins 49, including 11 on the PGA Tour and 24 on the Champions Tour.

Miller had an unusual looped backswing, similar to Jim Furyk's. But Miller's swing was caused by his left arm being shorter than his right arm. In order to straighten the left arm he had to first take the club outside and up away from his body. Once this backswing was accomplished he had to loop the club back onto the right plane and, hopefully, into a square-faced position at impact. Miller was also in the majority of professionals during his era who never had a lesson or swing coach.

Charlie Owens

Two titles on each the PGA and Champions tours.

Charlie is the most amazing handicapped player to ever play and win on the PGA Tour. He played cross-handed, had only one good leg to walk on because of a fused left ankle, and was blind in his right eye. He couldn't bend over to putt so he used 50-inch putter braced to his sternum.

Is this fact or fiction? It's a fact.

Charlie started playing golf cross-handed because no one told him anything about golf and he just started gripping the club with his right hand on top and the left on the bottom - obviously, he didn't have a swing coach. He injured his left leg during a parachuting exercise at Fort Bragg, which caused his left leg and ankle to be fused and a halt in his golf career for 13 years. After 13 years of rehabilitation he turned professional in 1967 and won the Kemper- Asheville Open.

But further operations and an ongoing battle with intermittent blinding in his right eye forced him off the tour. Charlie would not give up and invented the first long putter because he couldn't bend over to putt. He returned to the PGA Tour even though he had only one leg to walk on. But the Tour would not allow him to have a cart to ride. Too bad Charlie didn't sue the PGA Tour - as Casey Martin later did and was eventually allowed to play with a cart (see below). Charlie was also too much of a gentlemen; he wanted to play again and waited for the Champions Tour, which he had to qualify for. The senior circuit allowed Charlie to ride in a cart.

The first time I met Charlie was in a Senior event at Jeremy Ranch, Utah. I didn't know anything about him and was waiting when I saw this gentleman approaching with a cane, one good leg and the other fused at the knee and straight as a stick. I didn't think this was the professional we were going to play with in our group.

Charlie introduced himself and started warming up gripping the club cross-handed. I thought this was an unusual warm-up drill or something. Charlie was the first to tee off and I watched him limp up to the tee and take two practice swings cross-handed. I thought this is really an unusual pre-shot routine. I then saw Charlie set up to the ball, still cross-handed, and take his backswing with the club pointing at the ground at the top (like John Daly, but even more so), then proceed to reroute the club into the hitting area and as he finished, because he couldn't bend his fused left leg, stand upright at impact and collapse his arms instead of extending on the follow-through. The ball went right down the middle of the fairway. Charlie shot a smooth 70, beat me by two shots and quickly became my hero.

Casey Martin

Although he never won on the PGA Tour, I was fascinated by Casey's tenacity to play even in the face of every effort by Tim Finchem, commissioner of the PGA Tour, to keep him off the Tour. In 2001 Casey sued the PGA Tour for the right to ride in a cart due to a birth defect, Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber Syndrome, which left his leg deformed with open soft tissue and bones, and continual pain even while walking from the cart path to the green.

Casey won his lawsuit after a long battle with the PGA Tour and despite testimony by Jack Nicklaus that Casey would not be good for the game of golf. This was a big defeat for Finchem but was extremely popular with the golfing public.

Casey qualified for the U.S. Open at the Olympic Club and was immediately a crowd favorite. Unfortunately, he missed the cut by two shots, but beat 40 percent of the field and proved he could play if given the chance to ride in a cart. The apparent mindset of Finchem was, "What if Casey, or any disabled golfer, were to win or become a PGA money leader on Tour; how would it look for the Tour's image?"

My response is: Why would you want to discriminate against disabled golfers?

I am currently giving lessons to a scratch amateur, Mike Madsen, who has the potential to play on Tour even though one-half of his leg was amputated due to cancer. With the aid of new prosthesis technology, Mike can hit the ball 300 yards and has developed a swing as good as anyone on Tour, but he cannot walk 18 holes. It is unbelievable that the PGA Tour hierarchy is concerned disabled golfers using a cart would destroy its image.

Bob Boldt turned 77 in September 2014. Married for 31 years to Patricia, the father of two - including two sons, Rob and Jason, who are golf professionals and excellent players - played on the PGA and Champions tours for dozens of years, earning multiple victories in his amateur and professional careers.

Boldt, who attended Cal and became the Bears' men's golf coach, is a long-time native of Northern California and currently the director of golf at Vintners Golf Club in Yountville, where he is one of state's most recognized golf instructors. He received the Northern California PGA Section Junior Golf Leader Award in 1999.