Tag: Chris Biggins

PGA teaching pro Chris Biggins, born with cerebral palsy, carries a +2.8 handicap and is among favorites at U.S. Adaptive Open

“It just felt cool to do stuff that was extraordinary … stuff that you really shouldn’t be able to do, I guess.”

VILLAGE OF PINEHURST, N.C. ­­– Chris Biggins remembers standing in the front yard in Clarksville, Maryland, and calling a golf shot that hooked 30 yards around a tree to his brother, who caught the plastic ball with a baseball glove. Biggins’ friend, Ian Chalmers, called it one of the most incredible things he’d ever seen.

“As someone who is not very impressive even walking,” said Biggins, who was born with cerebral palsy, “being able to impress people with something was something I got addicted to. It just felt cool to do stuff that was extraordinary … stuff that you really shouldn’t be able to do, I guess.”

Chris Biggins watches his tee shot on hole 14 during the first round at the 2022 U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (Course No. 6) in Village of Pinehurst, N.C. on Monday, July 18, 2022. (Robert Beck/USGA)

Biggins, 30, opened up the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open with a 2-over 74, four shots off the pace set by U.S. Army veteran Chad Pfeifer in the men’s division at Pinehurst No. 6. The best golfer in his county growing up, Biggins played collegiate golf at Methodist and is now Director of Player Development at The Country Club of Birmingham. Last year, the plus 2.8 handicap shot 9-under 63 en route to victory at the GSGA Adaptive Golf Championship.

“Looking back,” said Chalmers, who drove over five hours from Maryland to watch Biggins compete on Monday, “we didn’t give him a break for a second. We didn’t treat him any different from the start.”

•••

At her son’s one-year check-up, Robin Biggins asked the doctor how she could teach him how to go from lying to sitting and from sitting to standing. After checking out a few things, the doctor came over and hugged Robin, telling her that she’d need to have him checked out at the local children’s hospital.

Robin fought back tears on the 17th hole Monday as she relived that life-changing moment.

As they started going to therapy twice a week, Robin couldn’t help but think they were taking up someone else’s spot. As Chris grew older, however, the tightness became more apparent.

Biggins had braces on both legs until the 10th grade. In all, he’s had 17 procedures. Robin said it usually takes two therapists to pull his legs apart, they’re so tight from the spastic diplegia. Robin said Chris pushed himself to do everything his brothers, Patrick and Michael, did.

While many in the field this week use a cart, Biggins walks the fairways to keep from tightening up even more.

“He didn’t realize, I think, that he was different until the second or third grade,” said Robin. “There were one or two bullies, and the other kids didn’t put up with it.”

Chris Biggins and fiancé Heather Tapscott post after Round 1 at Pinehurst No. 6. (Golfweek photo)

Heather Tapscott met her fiancé on Bumble, an online dating app. She saw a picture of Biggins high-fiving his dog Hank in the mountains and was smitten. Several days after their match, Biggins told her about his disability and said he’d understand if she didn’t want to pursue anything.

“I felt awful when he told me that,” she said. “He shouldn’t have to tell people that.”

Their first date was Sept. 13, 2019. They plan to elope next February in Zion National Park. Biggins would’ve liked a wedding, she said. He’s been the best man in so many already. But, as a person who can count her dear friends on two fingers, Tapscott didn’t want to begin a deep search to even out the wedding party.

They’ll have a gathering when they return to Birmingham.

“Anywhere we go in town,” she said, “everybody loves Chris.”

Especially the kids. Coach Biggs, as he’s known, runs the junior program at The Country Club of Birmingham and last year, 243 kids competed in the club championship. Biggins expects even more when it’s held in two weeks. Tapscott recently went to the club to watch Biggins play Elvis in a skit. Naturally, the crowd went wild.

When asked if the kids were blowing up his phone this week, Biggins said he’d kept it off, just as he tells his students to do at tournaments.

“I can’t possibly break my own rules,” he said, smiling.

In fact, Biggins said competing against the 10- to 18-year-olds at the club ahead of this event has been the best training he’s had in years.

“I’m playing for them,” he said.

•••

For years, Biggins dreamed of skiing in the Paralympics. Every winter he’d go out to Park City, Utah, for several months to train at the National Ability Center. After last season, he decided to hang up his skis and focus on the next chapter of life with Tapscott.

But the Paralympics dream is still alive, however – for golf. Biggins’ father, Mark, hopes that with the USGA and R&A now so supportive of Adaptive Golf, that golf might soon be included.

Biggins already travels the world for the G4D (Golf for Disabled) Tour, a DP World Tour-sponsored, seven-event circuit that is held on the same course during the same tournament week. Next month, he’ll travel to Northern Ireland for an event held during the ISPS Handa World Invitational. Mark said officials take care of the disabled players in those events as if they were Rory McIlroy.

Biggins brothers: Patrick, Michael, Chris courtesy photo)

As Mark Biggins made his way around No. 6, he made a point to thank volunteers. One by one, they responded with how inspired they feel this week.

“I look around,” said Mark, “and all I see is heroes all around me.”

Biggins didn’t try to ride a bike until high school, his mom said. The motion of flexing the foot proved extremely difficult, but he made it work.

Chalmers laughed as he recalled a time he and Biggins were waiting for the school bus when Biggins fell down the icy hill in front of his house. When Chalmers tried to help, he too fell down, and they spent a good deal of time flailing around on the ice as the bus waited.

The kind and laid-back Biggins always has had a good sense of humor about things. His fiancé says she’s responsible for the beer when they go out to breweries.

“He shouldn’t be carrying delicate things,” she said.

With the exception of the trophy, of course.

“This is going to be one of the greatest weeks of my life,” said Biggins.

“Regardless how I end up shooting. It’s just such a monumental event. Hopefully, people watching will want to pick up golf and want to start playing because of us.”

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Hall of Famer Dennis Walters will compete in inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open, an event he believes could be the most effective in golf, with dog Gussie in his cart

The U.S. Adaptive Open has at least five male players and two females in each impairment category.

VILLAGE OF PINEHURST, North Carolina – Dennis Walters likes to lay out his clothes before he goes to bed. In the morning, he nudges Gussie, short for Augusta, and playfully says, “Hey, service dog, I need some service. Can I have my shoes?”

Gussie pops up and gets a shoe. Walters then playfully follows with, “They come in pairs.”

Gussie goes back for the other shoe.

This back-and-forth goes on every day. Name a hole at Augusta National, and Gussie will bark the par. Say No. 12, for example, and she’ll bark three times. Walters even taught Gussie, a rescue dog found in a bag abandoned on the side of the road outside San Juan, Puerto Rico, how to hit a golf ball. Walters is passionate about rescue dogs and calls Gussie a “not-sure” breed. As in, who knows.

“We’re never separated,” said Walters, “and we’re a good team.”

When the U.S. Golf Association announced the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open, Walters called to ask if his dog could be in the cart with him during the championship. Walters said he wouldn’t have played without Gussie, who picks up whatever Walters can’t reach.

Because he’s a service dog, the USGA gave Gussie the green light, and Walters went to work learning how to play golf again.

“I’d say this is one of the coolest, greatest things ever,” said Walters of the USGA’s 15th championship. “This is way more than a golf tournament. Because I think what’s going to happen this week has the ability to change the lives of a lot of people.

“And by that I mean, if you’re sitting in a wheelchair, I think one of the last things you’d be able to think you could do is play golf. But if all of these hundreds of thousands or millions of people with disabilities see this, I think the USGA has a golden opportunity to show others what’s possible. It has the power to be way more effective than any golf tournament that I can think of. There’s a real purpose here.”

The U.S. Adaptive Open will be staged July 18-20 at Pinehurst No. 6. The 96-player field has at least five male players and two females in each impairment category: arm impairment, leg impairment, multiple limb amputee, vision impairment, intellectual impairment, neurological impairment, seated players and short stature. Four separate yardages will be used spanning from 4,700 to 6,500 yards.

“It feels incredible,” said Chris Biggins, a 30-year-old PGA professional who was born with cerebral palsy and plays off a +2.8 handicap.

“You had all these expectations coming in, and then you come in and you see the signs, the setup, all the players here, and it just makes it that much more real. It’s a big-time championship, the biggest one that I’ve played in ever, and I can’t wait to get going on Monday.”

2019 World Golf Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony
Donna Caponi, Jane Stephenson, Dennis Walters and Jack Nicklaus attend the 2019 World Golf Hall Of Fame Induction Ceremony in Carmel-By-The-Sea, California. (Photo: Kimberly White/Getty Images)

Walters, 72, went to North Texas State on a golf scholarship and was preparing for a second trip to PGA Tour Q-School in 1974 when the brakes failed on a three-wheel cart he was riding back home in Neptune, New Jersey. He was thrown from the cart and suffered spinal cord damage so severe it left him paralyzed from the waist down.

During the last month of rehab, Walters went home on the weekends and remembers laying on the couch with his head in his father’s lap as they watched the Bing Crosby National Pro-Am. Many of his friends were in the field, Tom Kite, Ben Crenshaw, Andy North, Bruce Lietzke.

“I was crying my eyes out,” said Walters, who was emotional Sunday recounting the story.

“My dad says, ‘Come on champ, let’s go hit some golf balls.’ I said ‘How do you reckon I’m going to do that?’ He said ‘out of that blanking wheelchair.’ ”

So they went down the street to a small clubhouse with a net in the dead of winter in New Jersey and with a pillow, a wide strap and rope, Walters’ father got him hitting balls again. By the third weekend, he’d moved to out to the front yard.

When he striped his favorite Byron Nelson 3-wood 130 yards down the middle of the street, Walters had an epiphany: “At that very moment I realized that when I hit the ball in the middle of the face, it still felt good.”

In time, the Dennis Walters Golf Show was born, and over the past 45 years, Walters has given more than 3,000 clinics the world over, with a beloved dog by his side. Gussie is his fifth dog, and Walters believes she might turn out to be the most talented.

Walters’ inspiring work has led to golf’s highest honors, including a 2019 induction into The World Golf Hall of Fame. He’s also won The Ben Hogan Award, USGA’s Bob Jones Award and PGA of America’s Distinguished Service Award. Last year a documentary was made about his life that an be found on Peacock.

But for all the millions of balls he’s hit, all the masterful tricks that have delighted audiences the world over, it had been decades since Walters had played 18 holes. Nearly 50 years since he’d competed in a tournament.

“This is like being in a foreign land as far as I’m concerned,” said Walters. “It’s like trying to climb Mount Everest.”

2022 U.S. Adaptive Open
Dennis Walters practices for the 2022 U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst No. 6 in Pinehurst, North Carolina. (Photo: Jeff Haynes/USGA)

Walters started with one-foot putts and found that he couldn’t make them all.

“That’s how bad it was,” he said. “Chipping, dumping them in the bunker, blading them across the street. It was ugly. It was ugly for a while. Finally, one day after about I think six weeks, I said, you know what, I might as well go try.”

So after six weeks, he decided to give nine holes a try and discovered that hitting the ball from the dirt wasn’t as difficult as he’d imagined.

The last shot Walters hit in a competitive round more than four decades ago was a 25-foot uphill bunker shot from a buried lie. He took half the sand out of the bunker and knocked it in tight.

Walters, who had the same barstool seat he’s been using for 45 years attached to a SoloRider cart, was afraid to drive his cart into bunkers when he first started playing. At two warm-up events, he’d take the penalty stroke each time to avoid having to drive in.

But during a recent round at Chicago Golf Club, the club president encouraged him to drive the cart into a bunker. Walters stunned himself when he hit it to 6 feet.

“So then I went up there and made the putt,” said Walters. “It was like my first sandy in 48 years. Then I had my dog take the ball out of the cup.”

Gussie has her own bed on the cart, along with a miniature silver umbrella to help beat the heat. On the back of the cart is a red bumper sticker that reads, “My mutt is smarter than your honor student.”

Dennis Walters and his dog Gussie meet with the media ahead of the U.S. Adaptive Open. (Golfweek photo)

The emotions of the week loom large for many in the field. Playing in a national championship again was never a dream. Walters thought getting out of bed all those years ago would take a miracle.

In 1971, he tied for 11th at the U.S. Amateur and missed going to the Masters by two shots. He’s still mad about that, though he has conducted a clinic on the first tee at Augusta National, played all the par 3s and fished in Ike’s Pond.

In his three-act show, Walters talks about the importance of dreams. When the Adaptive Open was announced, Walters himself got a new dream. While many of his friends are cutting back or quitting the game, Walters is just getting started.

After traveling the world and seeing only the practice range and first tee of so many famous courses, Walters is expanding his horizons, playing Oakmont, Shore Acres, Inverness and Chicago Golf Club in just the last few weeks.

His new bucket list includes the two courses he grew up on: Jumping Brook in Neptune and Hollywood Golf Club in Ocean Township, New Jersey, where he grew up picking the range by hand and dreaming of a career in golf.

“I’m laying in a hospital bed 48 years ago, you’re going to tell me you’ll travel the world and this journey will take you from this hospital bed to the World Golf Hall of Fame,” said Walters. “You can’t make that up. … There’s not a number high enough to calculate the odds on that.”

There are 95 other players in the field who feel some version of that awe and gratitude.

And one lucky dog.

How to watch

While there will be no full television coverage of the event, fans can watch near real-time highlights and feature stories during Golf Today (noon-2 p.m. ET) and Golf Central (4-5 p.m. ET) on Golf Channel all three days (July 18-20). The trophy ceremony will be shown July 20 on Golf Central.

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