Golf Is a Contact Sport

Ever dismissed golf as just an elitist pastime? I certainly did—until a set of clubs, gifted to me after my divorce, changed everything. Join me as I recount my unexpected journey from a skeptical beginner to a keen enthusiast boasting a 4.6 handicap. But life threw me a curveball when a golf cart accident led to a serious wrist injury and a permanent disability. Through humor and reflection, I share how this setback reshaped my understanding of resilience and deepened my admiration for those who face similar challenges daily. It's a blend of frustration and enlightenment, all wrapped up in the lessons that golf—and life—teach us.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Golf, Disability, and Life Lessons
• 7:31 Support for Content Creation

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Here for the memories thought-provoking audio memoir shorts filled with stories, humor, anecdotes and commentary on social, cultural, business and religious issues. Whatever Lyndon remembers and thinks will entertain, challenge and inform is a possible subject. The collection of memories about one's life allows for the development and refinement of a sense of self, including who one is, how one has changed and what one might be like in the future.

Speaker 2: 0:34

Greetings and salutations. This is Lyndon Wolfe, and you have found here for the Memories, my audio memoir, not a podcast, an audio memoir. This was designed just to share some things about me, my experiences, my opinions, so that those that love me might have something to reflect on when I depart this planet. Glad you stopped by. Love visitors Love visitors who come often, so I'm going to encourage you to do that.

Speaker 2: 1:08

Golf was taboo when I was growing up. Part of a society we didn't have access to, it was seen as a country club game for the elite and haughty. It was characterized by hubris, and it wasn't even a true sport, one that involved intense effort, energy and physical gifts such as speed, strength and agility. In other words, it should be played by obese and inebriated white men without breaking a sweat, and that wasn't who we were. Soon after my divorce, a good friend named Tim Angel bought me a set of ping knockoffs and told me that I needed to take up golf instead of going to therapy to cope with my failed marriage and the loss of my ministry career. I didn't seek professional counseling for my emotional health. I didn't think I needed it, but after taking up golf, I did indeed need therapy to cope with my complete inability to take that strangely formed tool and hit a dimpled white ball. And I'm not talking about hitting it long or straight, I'm talking about actually making contact with that inanimate object Unbelievable. After Tim's rudimentary lessons, I continued to find the game most maddening. I quit the sport after virtually every round I completed. In the first two years that I played here I was 30 years old and a fairly accomplished athlete, yet I found myself utterly thwarted by this ostensibly easy game. Yes, I was mesmerized, undeniably hooked and I am, to this very day, eventually got my game all the way down to a 4.6 handicap. That's statistically in the top 2-3% of all golfers and golf pretenders Regularly shooting in the low to mid 70s on par 72 tracks. But I was only a 6.4 handicap still very good when I discovered that golf was a contact sport, as happened fairly frequently.

Speaker 2: 3:16

I was asked to play in a charity event and as a teammate and I sped from the tee box on the downhill ninth hole upon seeing a stray ball off in the distance. The driver of the cart I was riding in took a hard left, unannounced turn and threw me, by his own estimates, 30 feet before I took the full impact on my right hand. That right wrist snapped and I heard multiple sickening crunches and upon inspection, my hand was bent upward to the point of lying backward on my forearm. Reacting to the grotesque sight, I quickly pulled my hand back into its natural position A purely spontaneous move, but not a smart one, by the way. After going into shock and being transported to a nearby emergency room, the doctor didn't believe my story and she said it was probably just a sprain. But after reading the x-rays, she came back with both distal and radius fractures rays. She came back with both distal and radius fractures, multiple bone fragments basically shattered and cartilage relocated to places it was not intended to be. Prepare, she said, for surgery and a lifelong impairment more than likely, and she was correct.

Speaker 2: 4:35

Since that event over 20 years ago, I carry a 33% upper body permanent disability and a 17% total body impairment. My hand remains atrophied and the range of motion in my dominant right wrist is about 20 degrees much, much less than the average person. However, people who have known me for years are unaware of my limitations or my constant discomfort of bone on bone. I, however, being stubborn and prideful, have refused the handicap placard that would give me preferential parking. I was referred to a gifted orthopedic surgeon at Vanderbilt Hospital who gave me a dire prognosis. With his drab personality on full display, he told me the longest speech I ever heard pour from his lips. You will be lucky to hold a pencil again, much less a golf club. Sell your clubs, and I did. Mike Matone, one of my golf buddies, bought my clubs at a discounted rate While he and my other golf buddies happily frustrated themselves on the course. I went through three surgeries and a year of therapy. It took me over seven months just to touch my index finger to my thumb. The prospect of me ever playing again was unthinkable, but I did, and eventually, once again, my official USG handicap drops just slightly into the single digits at 9.6.

Speaker 2: 6:09

What did all this teach me? Well, one an appreciation for those who are truly impaired. They can't use limbs or hands. It's amazing how difficult life is when you only have one hand, for example, or, I guess, one leg. Just managing life with those kinds of challenges and disabilities is difficult. Yet there are people that are much, much more disabled and impaired than I was and am. Yet they happily go about their life and their business, in many cases with much better attitudes than you and I have.

Speaker 2: 6:48

I learned to appreciate those in wheelchairs, those who struggle to hold things, those who might have vision or hearing loss, because they have taken a difficult situation and they've learned not only to cope but to live well with it. Do you know someone who's disabled, handicapped? If you will, have you ever noticed that they probably have a better attitude than you do some of the time? Maybe that's a lesson we can learn. Golf is a contact sport, but that contact allowed me to learn something about those less fortunate physically than I am. I'm Lyndon Wolfe. This is here for the Memories. I'm so glad you stopped by. Come back and visit anytime. I'd love to have you.

Speaker 1: 7:39

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