I recently had one of the most delightful and interesting golf experiences of recent memory. I had the pleasure of playing 9 holes at one of our local muni’s with two quadriplegic power wheelchair users. I am talking about two guys who spend their entire lives in a power wheelchair and have no functional use of their arms or legs.
You are scratching your head right now going no way this was real golf. But take my word for it, they played every shot from the tee through the green, including putting, and as a threesome (and then some). We covered the nine in under two hours, kept up with the group in front of us, and never held up the group behind us up the entire nine holes.
Our Seven-Some: Moe, Andrew (the golf facilitator), Tomeka and Shan (William’s caregivers), Nyasha (not pictured-Josh’s caregiver), William, and Josh.
A little back story here will give this some context. Josh Basile was an elementary school classmate of my son Noah and, about 20 years ago, experienced a calamitous spinal injury that left him totally paralyzed from the neck down. Josh, being the type of person he is, came out of this incident and the initial recovery determined to do whatever it would take to reclaim control over his life. He finished his college education, got a law degree, and set out to lay claim to the rest of his life. With the help of his family he created the Determined2Heal Foundation, the purpose of which was “To simplify the transition into life with paralysis. We provide information and advice for people with spinal cord injuries, their families and friends, as well as rehabilitative adventures”.
You can click on the logo above to see the unbelievable array of initiatives, projects, and information sources Josh has brought together for this purpose.
Recently Josh said to me that he wanted to get out and play some golf so he could introduce me to the AdapTee Golf concept he had been working on. Our family being an annual supporter of his good work, I was totally intrigued by this invitation.
Josh decided a number of years ago to flesh out this AdapTee Golf idea. He started by accumulating available equipment, modifying other existing stuff, and creating his own implement if none existed for his purpose. With the help of his friend and Golf Facilitator Andrew, Josh has been playing golf this way for a number of years, as well as introducing it to others, and plays at least a couple of times a month through the golf season.
He started by locating a propulsion golf club made by Power2Golf to use from the tee to about 75 yards from the green. This club was invented by a retired NASA engineer who wanted to help his older golf friends who had lost their agility to swing a golf club continue to play golf. The Power2 uses a cartridge to propel the ball anywhere from 75 to about 200 yards based on player set adjustments on the back of the club.
Trajectory of the ball, carry, and spin can be controlled by the facilitator at the direction of the player, who sits behind and calls the parameters of each shot.
For shots inside of 75 yards, Josh modified a hunter’s sling shot, making the ammo pouch large enough to handle the golf ball. Again, the player behind the facilitator directs the angle of his arm and the length of the pull back to get the appropriate shot result for the circumstance.
There was no appropriate putting device on the market so Josh went into his workshop and created one of his own. The pendulum putting device he fabricated is aligned by the player from the edge of the green (his wheelchair is too heavy to drive on the green). He then directs the facilitator how far back to pull the putter head before letting go and implementing the stroke. You will note that Josh put a protractor with an adjustable pointer on the shaft of the putter so the player can instruct the facilitator exactly what degree to pull it back to get the desired roll out distance.
So how did it go on the course….kind of like a typical round with your buddies. There was conversation about various strategies to play the hole, avoiding the short side approach, respecting the false front of the green, and all the related trash talk to go with it.
Josh giving Andrew last minute adjustments for tee height, foot alignment, and shaft angle to get the intended result.
On approach shots the key is trajectory and roll out with the sling shot. As in our regular game it is always tempting to go for the high flopper/lawn dart, but something lower with a bit of roll out might be a better option.
William carefully examines the initial flight trajectory as well as how far to pull the sling back. To the elbow? To the arm pit? Decisions…Decisions.
On this 230-yard uphill Par 4 with a sharp dogleg left into the green, Josh decided the risk vs reward made it worth trying to cut the corner, cover the tallest tree top 165 yards away, and try to catch a piece of the green. To my amazement it worked and he had a 75-foot eagle putt from the front edge.
Solid lag putt left them with a 7-footer for birdie, which after considerable collaborative conversation they rolled in for a three.
On every putt Josh or William would stalk the putt, wheeling themselves around the perimeter of the green to get the low side read before ending up directly behind Andrew for final adjustments for line and pace. Lots of conversation on every putt before agreeing to the exact angle of the protractor pointer and directing Andrew to release the putter.
So where does AdapTee go from here?
Josh has big plans to share this concept with quadriplegic power wheelchair users all over the country. He has gotten the backing of a private foundation to the tune of a $189,000 two-year grant to support Determined2Heal’s roll-out of this program to metropolitan facilities all over the country. They will provide the equipment and facilitator training in conjunction with a local municipal golf provider to allow wheelchair users with limited or no arm movement to play golf with their friends.
If Josh and Andrew have their way, there will be AdapTee facilities in Washington, DC, Nashviille, Minneapolis, and San Diego the first year. Two more metropolitan areas to follow in year two. This is an ambitious goal, but from what I know of Josh Basile’s track record I would not doubt that they can pull this off.
Josh and Andrew are contemplating soaring heights for this program.
If you are interested in learning more about this program and other Determined2Heal initiatives or to provide support to their ambitious efforts, you can click the link below to get to his Determined2Heal-Contact Us page on their website.
August, 2024
moegolf 