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Chuck Adamson
Senior Information Specialist
573-882-6843
adamsoncw@missouri.edu
Published: June 20, 2006
Story Source: Jerry Hitzhusen, (573) 882-9512
Missouri golf clinic for persons with disabilities
BLUE SPRINGS, Mo. - Jerry Hitzhusen teed up a ball for Larry Green and told him no more hitting to the right and left; this time aim for straight up the middle of the fairway.
Hitzhusen, a University of Missouri Extension associate professor who specializes in therapeutic recreation, was teaching Green how to drive a ball with one arm while sitting in a wheelchair. Green uses one arm because the golf club won’t clear his knees while sitting and swinging with both arms.
The second annual free adaptive golf clinic at Adams Pointe Golf Course on June 13 was organized by The National Sports Center for the Disabled, based in Colorado, and sponsored by the University of Missouri-Columbia and Blue Springs Parks and Recreation Department. Six adults and about 30 children participated.
Therapeutic recreation students from two Missouri universities and disability services staff from the Kansas City area volunteered to help run the event. It’s one of the largest golf clinics of its kind in the Midwest, Hitzhusen said.
Green, 37, of Independence, Mo., is new to golf but not to wheelchair sports. He was paralyzed 12 years ago when he fell off a ladder while painting a house. The 30-foot fall severed his spine.
Since his injury, Green has taken up water-skiing and wheelchair basketball and softball. Before the clinic, he had never played golf.
"I can see myself coming out here and playing," Green said. "Some of the technology they have now is pretty amazing. There’s no difference between me and an able-bodied person. I can do everything they can. I just need to sit down to do it."
Some golfers with disabilities use specially designed single-person golf carts that can lift a player into an upright position, allowing the golfer to make a more traditional golf swing. Dany Baker, a private golf consultant and wheelchair user, had such a cart at the clinic. He travels with Hitzhusen occasionally to help advise golf course staff and give lessons to golfers with disabilities.
Golfers with various disabilities, mental and physical, participated in the clinic.
Wade Capoun, 12, of Paxico, Kan., lost use of his right arm about 10 years ago from a four-wheeler accident on a farm.
"It doesn’t slow him down," said his mom, Tracy. "He loves every sport."
Wade plays basketball, football and baseball. An archer, he can pull a bowstring back with his teeth. At the clinic he was driving the ball well onto the driving range fairway and making accurate putts.
"It’s fun, just so long as you hit the ball far," Wade said.
Hitzhusen called Adams Pointe the most accessible course in the Midwest. The public course is owned by the city of Blue Springs. Every portion, from the clubhouse and restrooms to the tee boxes and sand bunkers, was designed to be accessible by people with disabilities.
Unfortunately, Hitzhusen said, it’s an exception.
"I hate saying this because I’m in parks and recreation, but we don’t welcome people to our golf clubs, not all people," Hitzhusen said. "These people have money and they’re going to spend it. It’s a way to increase revenue. We’re too used to looking at old models of marketing and business in golf."
"Why shouldn’t disabled people be able to play? They pay taxes. These are public courses. They should be playing," Hitzhusen said. "It’s a great social activity as well as a great mental and physical activity.
"Working with these kids makes you feel a lot younger, like you can go on for another 20 years," Hitzhusen said. "We don’t look at what they can’t do. We focus on what they can do."
Robert Baker, a 51-year-old wheelchair user from Kansas City, Mo., said that inclusion should be a priority. Baker, not related to Dany Baker, has played wheelchair sports for 30 years. He was injured, paralyzed below his middle abdomen, in a work-related accident in 1974.
"Once we get hurt we start thinking about all the things we can’t do anymore. Sports for the disabled focuses on what we can do," Robert Baker said. "More opportunities can only enhance the interest of disabled people.
"It’s urgent. The urgency is getting handicapped people, the disabled, to get out and participate," Robert Baker said. "It’s green; it’s sunny out here. When you spend three days in a room indoors, that room becomes a cave."
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| Jerry Hitzhusen, left, gives golf lessons to Larry Green at the adaptive golf clinic held at the Adams Pointe Golf Course in Blue Springs, Mo. Hitzhusen is a University of Missouri-Columbia associate professor of parks, recreation and tourism. MU was a sponsor of the second annual clinic that was held on June 13. Photo credit: University of Missouri-Columbia |
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| Jerry Hitzhusen, right, gives lessons on how to drive a golf ball to Ben St. John at the adaptive golf clinic held at the Adams Pointe Golf Course in Blue Springs, Mo. St. John, 16, has disabilities brought on by cerebral palsy and scoliosis. Hitzhusen is a University of Missouri-Columbia associate professor of parks, recreation and tourism. Photo credit: University of Missouri-Columbia |
