Hurt vets golf with Hootie and the Blowfish

[cec]

Hurt vets golf with Hootie and the Blowfish




By Pete Iacobelli - The Associated Press
Posted : Friday Apr 11, 2008 19:27:41 EDT

COLUMBIA, S.C. — J.P. King was an avid golfer who played whenever he could, enjoying a break from his job as a Chief Warrant Officer in the Army.
All of that changed in 2005, when the 46-year-old injured his back in Iraq. With a lengthy rehab recommended, the last thing on King’s mind was returning to the links.
However, King and other veterans got involved in a program that helps wounded soldiers return to golf. And when organizers of Hootie and the Blowfish’s Monday After the Masters event heard about the program, they invited King and five other injured veterans to play among the celebrities at Myrtle Beach.
The program, known as Salute Military Golf Association, was partly founded by Jim Estes, a former PGA Tour player who now teaches golf at Olney Golf Park in Maryland, only a few miles from the Walter Reed Army Medical Center.
It all started several years ago, when Estes was encouraged by a friend to attend dinners supporting disabled veterans and found many of them lacked the joy of a past activity as they struggled with rehabilitation.
Soon, Estes invited veterans for golf lessons. Word of the lessons spread through hospital rooms and injured soldiers were soon swinging golf clubs again.
Since 2005, Estes says the program has fitted about 50 injured veterans with specially designed clubs that have different weights or lengths than typical clubs.
Estes has worked with soldiers who have lost multiple limbs, have back injuries or suffer from post-traumatic stress syndrome.
More than grooving their swing, Estes said the work has improved attitudes for the long road of healing and physical therapy.
“You realize there’s a lot more going on there than just the injury,” said Estes, who spent a year on the PGA Tour in 1998. “There’s so much mental transformation.”
Since he has begun work with injured veterans, Estes has tailored his teaching to specific needs. He’ll demonstrate hitting from his knees, balancing on one leg and working with whatever physical limitation the trainee has, King said.
“Every time there’s a new injury, (Estes) he teaches himself” to swing a golf club with that condition, said King, who flew for the Army in Iraq. “It’s really quite amazing.”
As is King’s return to golf.
He savors the times he and fellow soldiers set up a practice range in Iraq and used donated golf clubs to whack balls during down time.
King hesitates when asked how he got hurt, saying only that the incidents occurred in Iraq in April and August of 2005.
King, from Maryville, Tenn., needed spinal surgery. He had lost muscle mass and his balance, an essential element to a golf swing, was badly affected.
Slowly, Estes got King back in the swing of things.
The first time King hit a golf ball, he remembered thinking, “It didn’t go far, but I can play.”
Estes strips away defeated feelings and sadness that can cloud an injured vet’s mind and taps into the toughness and determination that led them to fight for their country.
“They have faced hardships on such a different level,” Estes said.
At Monday After the Masters, they might be able to forget about their injuries for a while, partly because tournament organizers came up with the dream golf vacation package.
King said the group will travel Saturday and try to sneak in a few holes once the plane lands.
On Sunday, the group gets a private lesson from former long-drive champion, Sean “The Beast” Fister.
Once the tournament begins Monday at the Dye Club at Barefoot Landing, King hopes fans who turn out to watch John Daly, Steve Spurrier and Hootie’s band members also see how far the disabled veterans have come in their recovery.
“I’ve personally seen people cooped up in their rooms after therapy,” King said. “This helps them so much.”



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[Woodmonkey]

What a wonderful program.