Adaptive Golf
University of Arizona’s adaptive athletics program wows Gov. Doug Ducey, other dignitaries
Gov. Doug Ducey stood near the sideline of a basketball court inside the UA’s Campus Rec Center, scanned the athletes and facilities around him, and practically cheered.
“I’ve been doing this for five years … and this is the first I’ve seen any of this,” Ducey told UA president Robert C. Robbins, one of the half-dozen power brokers who gathered Tuesday for a tour and dedication.
Tuesday was a day to impress for the UA’s nationally renowned adaptive athletics program. Organizers took Ducey, Robbins and a cadre of dignitaries, including Tucson auto dealer Jim Click and former UA president Peter Likins, on a tour of the UA’s sparkling Disability Resource Center. Then they watched the Wildcats’ nationally acclaimed wheelchair basketball and wheelchair rugby teams compete inside the rec center before dedicating a new adaptive golf simulator upstairs.
Ducey, making his 68th trip to Southern Arizona as governor, called it “my most memorable visit to the UA.”
“I’m proud that Arizona’s leading as an adaptive athletics system,” Ducey said, wearing a red and blue striped tie that could have come from Sean Miller’s sideline collection. (For those who care about such things, the governor holds a bachelor’s degree in finance from Arizona State University, but in 2006 was named Entrepreneurial Fellow at the UA’s Eller College of Management).
The praise was mutual. Tuesday’s event doubled as a thank you to state lawmakers, who appropriated $160,000 to the Arizona Board of Regents in the 2020 budget earmarked for the state’s adaptive athletics programs.
Since the UA is the only in-state school to offer adaptive athletics, it will receive the full sum. Money will be spent on scholarships, uniforms and transportation, giving financial firepower to a program that’s long been considered among the nation’s best. The Disability Resource Center includes a “Wall of Paralympians” that showcases the 38 current and former UA athletes and coaches who have represented the United States. Six Paralympians are currently on campus as players or coaches.
Arizona’s teams are particularly impressive. The Wildcats’ wheelchair rugby team practiced Tuesday under a pair of banners commemorating their 2018 and 2019 USQRA national titles. The wheelchair basketball team played for more than an hour, producing highlight-reel plays when Ducey, Robbins, Click and crew arrived. Arizona’s women won national championships in 2012 and 2014 with Peter Hughes, the UA’s current director of adaptive athletics, in charge.
In all, 50 UA students take part in adaptive athletics annually, with the program also featuring students from Pima College and members of the Tucson community.
Those who participate in the adaptive athletics program are better suited to life after college, Hughes said. Research shows that nationally, people who use wheelchairs have an 18% employment rate. Among those who have a college education and play adaptive athletics, the employment rate rises to 53%.
“These are true champions in each sense of the word,” Ducey said.
The one-time allotment from the Legislature came with some minor strings attached. The adaptive athletics program had to prove that it could match the funds, receiving only as much as it could match up to $160,000. An endowment from Click allows the adaptive athletics program to draw down $40,000 annually, and the Jim Click Run N’ Roll — a longtime fundraiser scheduled this year for Oct. 6 — brings in an additional $90,000 per year.
The UA’s wheelchair basketball team plays before the Red-Blue Game every year, receiving between $8,000-$12,000 from the Wildcats’ athletic department.
There are other private donations, too, and additional gifts that might not show up on the balance sheet.
The UA’s new state-of-the-art golf simulator was built by TeeItUp Enterprises at a significant discount.
Hughes met TeeItUp’s managing partner, Jon Moore, on a flight five years ago. When Moore’s son lost his vision following brain surgery, the golf simulator boss reached out to Hughes and asked how he could help the UA’s cause.
The result: a new simulator located inside a former racquetball court at the rec center. It’s mobile, and can be rented out as a separate source of revenue.
As a result, “thanks to Pete Likins and Dr. Robbins, this university probably has more outreach for people with disabilities than any university in the United States of America” Click said. “This university welcomes everybody.”
The next step, UA officials agree, is to find in-state competition.
“We want our own Territorial Cup,” Hughes said to the governor. “We want to take them down.”
Great article by one of our good friends and fellow vision impaired golfer, Jeremy Poincenot.
Brendan Lawlor ready to make ‘huge step forward’ on Tour debut
Brendan Lawlor is used to breaking new ground on the fairways and this week the Dundalk man will take another giant step on his remarkable journey when he becomes the first disability golfer to play in a European Tour event.
The Co Louth man (23) has a rare condition called Ellis-van Creveld syndrome, characterised by shorter stature and shorter limbs.
But that hasn’t stopped him turning professional and joining Ryder Cup player Tyrrell Hatton and LPGA Tour star Leona Maguire in Niall Horan’s Modest! Golf stable, earning an invitation to compete against Major winners Danny Willett and Martin Kaymer in the ISPS HANDA UK Championship at The Belfry this week.
“It’s just crazy,” said Lawlor, who is supported by Carton House, American Golf and adidas and yesterday became the first disability golfer to sign a professional club contract with TaylorMade.
“This week is a huge step forward for the inclusion of disability golfers in the game. I am not expecting to win the tournament but if I put two solid rounds together, which I know I can, I hope I will not be too far away from the cut line. It’s a massive ask but I love competing. I love to set goals and if you don’t set your goals as high as you can, sure where would you be?”
Ranked fourth in the world rankings for disability golf, Lawlor played in the Challenge Tour’s ISPS HANDA World Invitational Men|Women at Galgorm Castle last August, carding rounds of 78 and 74 to miss the cut.
“ISPS HANDA asked be to an ambassador and I was delighted they extended me an invitation this week to help promote the power of sport for everyone,” said Brendan, who turned professional late last year and joined Tiger Woods and Ernie Els in helping promote disabled golf at last year’s Presidents Cup.
Now he’s got a chance to compete against some of the game’s superstars with Lee Westwood and Ireland’s Paul Dunne and Niall Kearney also in the field.
“I always had the mentality to play at the highest level I could,” added Brendan, who has been paired with England’s Richard McEvoy and Denmark’s Jeff Winther for the first two rounds.
Confidence
“I played Senior Cup and Barton Shield for Dundalk against very good players. I might not beat the Caolan Raffertys of the world, but if you are competing close to their level, it gives you confidence.”
He’s no stranger to pressure, teeing it up in disability events played alongside the 2018 ISPS HANDA Melbourne World Cup of Golf and last year’s Scottish Open, KPMG Trophy and DP World Tour Championship.
“Those were integration events where disability golfers had their own event within the event,” he explained. “This is a bit of added pressure, to be actually competing against these guys. I am not here to win but enjoy it and hopefully people will watch me and take inspiration from it.”
Modest! Golf’s Mark McDonnell is simply inspired by Lawlor’s attitude to life.
“Signing Brendan is probably one of the most rewarding things we have done as a business,” McDonnell said. “He’s a trailblazer in every way. It’s not about what he scores this week but about giving hope to people out there who might not play sport because they are embarrassed to or they have a disability and don’t feel they’re welcome.
“If he can help people get into sport and help their mental health, he feels he’s doing a good job.”
Courtesy of the Irish Independent