Amputee Golfers: Taking Less than 3,000 Hits

“It took me seventeen years to get 3,000 hits. I did it in one afternoon on the golf course,” said the great Hank Aaron. But though it may have felt just as grueling, amputee golfers didn't have to make quite as many strokes to become established (and accepted) as the National Amputee Golf Association (NAGA).

The amputee golfers began to group in the early part of the 20 th century, when World War II veteran, Dale Bourisseau, with his own below-the-knee amputation, called on eleven other amputees. He urged each to join him in the catharsis and esteem-building that is golf and from there joined the Dayton Ohio group, Possibilities Unlimited, a coalition of folks with physical disabilities.

Bourisseau then began traveling with golf clubs and on golf tours, turning a small group in a regional one—formed by amputee golfers who started playing for fun and recreation and friendly camaraderie, and who then evolved as a force that soon went regional.

This small group of amputee golfers became, in 1954, incorporated: now the drivers behind the National Amputee Golf Association (NAGA), this team was supported and endorsed by and in turn supported and contributed to the Professional Golf Association (PGA) and the United States Golf Association (USGA).

Having spearheaded NAGA, Bourisseau and the first team of amputee golfers made a such an impact on the way disabled golfers were seen and included in the sport that the NAGA now boasts a number of over 4,000 United States members and over 200 from outside the United States. In addition, four regions represent the board of directors and trustees on NAGA.

And the amputee golfers of NAGA do more than share a title on the greens: they participate in tournaments, at golf clinics, and through amputee specific programs such as the ever popular and effective First Swing Program (which was started in 1989 in the United States, helping first-time amputee golfers to escape the stigma and negation of being disabled). Today, it is thanks to the gumption of Dale Bourisseau and the hundreds of swings he took to get amputee golfers involved that such successes as Dan Cox, who set the Iowa Amputee Golf Tournament Record (with an overall low of 138); Dick Krapfl, who won the NAGA arm flight with 147; Pete Brandt, winner of the tournament's leg flight with 152; Dima Sitnik, with a multi-flight low of 162; and senior flight winner Bob Wiechelman, with 146, can count their swings as counting for something. Something to be proud of, as Bourisseau originally, proudly intended.

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