The inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open is at Pinehurst No. 6. It’s a three-day, 54-hole event with a 96-player field.
VILLAGE OF PINEHURST, North Carolina – Grace Anne Braxton hit the first tee shot at the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open. The 50-year-old is a member of the 2022 class of the Virginia State Golf Association and became involved in the Special Olympics at age 8.
Braxton is competing in the Intellectual Impairment category. There are eight categories in all and a total of 96 players in the field.
Players compete from four separate yardages spanning from 4,700 to 6,500 yards. The championship is using a maximum score format. Maximum score has been set at double par for each hole.
Take a look at some of the competitors at Pinehurst.
Here’s what you need to know about the USGA’s newest championship.
VILLAGE OF PINEHURST, North Carolina – The inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open begins on Monday at Pinehurst No. 6 and 96 competitors are on hand for the historic event.
Amy Bockerstette, who rose to fame with her fabulous par from a greenside bunker at the WM Phoenix Open alongside playing partner Gary Woodland, will compete in the intellectual impairment category. She recently fielded a good-luck call from One Direction’s Niall Horan. She talks to Woodland weekly.
“I love playing golf tournaments,” said an excited Bockerstette on the eve of the event. Bockerstette and her family have since founded the I Got This Foundation to provide golf instruction, playing opportunities and organized events for people with Down Syndrome and other intellectual disabilities.
The 54-hole Adaptive Open will be staged July 18-20 and will feature 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.
There are 15 players in the field with a Handicap Index better than 0.
Here are five things to know about the USGA’s 15th championship:
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.”
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.”
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.
World Golf Hall of Fame member Dennis Walters gave a tour of the SoloRider cart he’ll be using at the U.S. Adaptive Open. pic.twitter.com/oU1Stgrqvx
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.
Check out the field for the USGA’s groundbreaking event.
The field is set for the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open and Amy Bockerstette is among the 96 players in the field. Bockerstette, 23, went viral in 2019 when she famously said, “I got this!” when getting up-and-down for par from a greenside bunker during the Waste Management Phoenix Open alongside playing partner Gary Woodland, who is now a good friend.
Bockerstette will compete in the intellectual impairment category. The disabilities advocate founded the I Got This Foundation to provide golf instruction, playing opportunities and organized events for people with Down syndrome and other intellectual disabilities.
The USGA received 299 entries for the inaugural event, held July 18-20 on Pinehurst Resort & Country Club’s Course No. 6. Individual handicaps were there primary factor in determining the field, with five male player spots and two female player spots designated per impairment category. The eight impairment categories include: arm impairment, leg impairment, multiple limb amputee, neurological impairment, seated players, short stature, vision impairment and intellectual impairment.
The field’s youngest competitor is 15-year-old Sophia Howard from Hudsonville, Michigan, and Judith Brush, 80, of Alexandria, Virginia, is the championship’s oldest player. Players will represent 12 countries and 29 states.
Dennis Walters, 72, of Jupiter, Florida, who received the 2018 Bob Jones Award, the USGA’s highest honor, will join six other golfers who qualified in the seated player impairment category. Walters has turned the tragedy of being paralyzed from the waist down at age 24 from a golf-cart accident into a personal mission to teach golf and life lessons to a worldwide audience.
PGA pro Alex Fourie. (courtesy photo)
PGA teaching pro Alex Fourie, who spent the first seven years of his life in Ukrainian orphanages, is among the best one-armed players in the world. Forie, who now lives with his family in Tennessee, sells T-shirts through his charity, Single Hand Golf, to help orphans in war-torn Ukraine.
There will be one overall men’s champion and one overall women’s champion.
“We are thrilled by the level of interest and support that we’ve received from the adaptive community for the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open,” said John Bodenhamer, chief championships officer for the USGA. “To receive nearly 300 entries from around the world underscores the passion of these athletes who are seeking the opportunity to compete for a national championship.”
Chris Biggins, director of player development at the Country Club of Birmingham, who was born with cerebral palsy, will compete in the neurological impairment category. The 2022 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball is being contested this week at the Alabama club.
“Competing in an official USGA championship has been a dream of mine for years and now that dream will be coming to fruition,” said Biggins. “This event will attract the best golfers from around the world to compete on an incredible course, Pinehurst No. 6. It is an honor to compete in this historic event and help pave the way for the growth of disabled golf.”
The championship will be contested over 54 holes of stroke play. Multiple sets of tees will be utilized. Carts will be permitted for all players and caddies. The 96-player field is as follows:
Trevor Arnone, of Lewiston, Idaho, 34, Short Stature Kurtis Barkley, of Canada, 34, Short Stature Brian Bemis, of Lansing, Mich., 48, Leg Impairment Adam Benza, of Hellertown, Pa., 35, Leg Impairment Andrew Berglund, of Stillwater, Minn., 22, Intellectual Impairment Chris Biggins, of Birmingham, Ala., 30, Neurological Impairment Jeremy Bittner, of Pittsburgh, Pa., 33, Leg Impairment Joakim Bjorkman, of Sweden, 32, Short Stature Wayne Blankenship, of Union, Mo., 52, Leg Impairment Amy Bockerstette, of Phoenix, Ariz., 23, Intellectual Impairment Jack Bonifant, of Kensington, Md., 32, Neurological Impairment Kenny Bontz, of Parrish, Fla., 52, Leg Impairment Erik Bowen, of Oakland, Calif., 42, Multiple Limb Amputee Albert Bowker, of Buellton, Calif., 25, Short Stature Grace Anne Braxton, of Fredericksburg, Va., 50, Intellectual Impairment Ryan Brenden, of Pierce, Neb., 46, Leg Impairment Carlos Brown, of McKinney, Texas, 42, Leg Impairment Mike Browne, of England, 44, Leg Impairment Judith Brush, of Alexandria, Va., 80, Leg Impairment Brandon Canesi, of Doral, Fla., 30, Multiple Limb Amputee Luke Carroll, of Old Hickory, Tenn., 17, Neurological Impairment Lawrence Celano, of Chandler, Ariz., 53, Seated Players Amanda Cunha, of Kaneohe, Hawaii, 18, Vision Impairment Ryan Cutter, of Helena, Mont., 31, Multiple Limb Amputee Mario Dino, of Denver, Colo., 19, Neurological Impairment Zachary Duncan, of Cornelius, N.C., 22, Intellectual Impairment Spencer Easthope, of Canada, 40, Neurological Impairment Conor Ennis, of Wake Forest, N.C., 31, Short Stature Jesse Florkowski, of Canada, 32, Arm Impairment Alex Fourie, of Knoxville, Tenn., 29, Arm Impairment Billy Fryar, of Bigelow, Ark., 50, Seated Players Patrick Garrison, of Folsom, Pa., 38, Neurological Impairment Ken Green, of West Palm Beach, Fla., 63, Leg Impairment Zachary Grove, of York, Pa., 36, Neurological Impairment Mauricio Gutiérrez, of Mexico, 47, Seated Players Ann Hayes, of Lee, Mass., 59, Seated Players Joseph (Joey) Hill, of Tampa, Fla., 22, Intellectual Impairment Greg Hollingsworth, of Peck, Kan., 53, Leg Impairment Sophia Howard, of Hudsonville, Mich., 15, Arm Impairment Ryanne Jackson, of St. Petersburg, Fla., 24, Neurological Impairment Han Jeongwon, of Republic of Korea, 51, Leg Impairment Lucas Jones, of Louisville, Ky., 27, Leg Impairment Kiefer Jones, of Canada, 32, Vision Impairment Shigeru Kobayashi, of Japan, 66, Leg Impairment Masato Koyamada, of Japan, 55, Arm Impairment Sarah Beth Larson, of Green Bay, Wis., 43, Arm Impairment Cynthia Lawrence, of Lehigh Acres, Fla., 59, Multiple Limb Amputee Simon Lee, of Republic of Korea, 25, Intellectual Impairment Yangwoo Lee, of Republic of Korea, 24, Intellectual Impairment Cedric Lescut, of Belgium, 43, Leg Impairment Rasmus Lia, of Sweden, 21, Leg Impairment Michael Madsen, of Meridian, Idaho, 41, Leg Impairment Tommy Marks, of Danville, Pa., 42, Vision Impairment Evan Mathias, of Indianapolis, Ind., 26, Multiple Limb Amputee Joseph McCarron, of Orange Beach, Ala., 59, Vision Impairment Sean Mitchell, of Spokane, Wash., 32, Leg Impairment Kim Moore, of Portage, Mich., 41, Leg Impairment Austin Morris, of Bend, Ore., 34, Arm Impairment Felix Norrman, of Sweden, 25, Intellectual Impairment Jake Olson, of Huntington Beach, Calif., 25, Vision Impairment Elaine Ostrovsky, of Boca Raton, Fla., 49, Neurological Impairment Wooshik Park, of Republic of Korea, 63, Leg Impairment William Pease, of St. Augustine, Fla., 58, Vision Impairment Steven Pennell, of Jefferson, N.C., 44, Multiple Limb Amputee Chad Pfeifer, of Caldwell, Idaho, 40, Leg Impairment Jeremy Poincenot, of Carlsbad, Calif., 32, Vision Impairment Kipp Popert, of England, 24, Neurological Impairment Krystian Pushka, of Canada, 31, Intellectual Impairment Tracy Ramin, of Montrose, Mich., 50, Leg Impairment Trevor Reich, of South Africa, 58, Leg Impairment Stacey Rice, of Suwanee, Ga., 59, Leg Impairment Brandon Rowland, of Jackson, Tenn., 41, Multiple Limb Amputee Mandi Sedlak, of Kearney, Neb., 42, Leg Impairment Randy Shack, of Sulphur Springs, Texas, 38, Seated Players Steven Shipuleski, of Plainfield, Conn., 51, Arm Impairment Douglas Shirakura, of Somers, N.Y., 20, Leg Impairment Rasmus Skov løt, of Denmark, 21, Arm Impairment Deborah Smith, of Rockford, Ill., 60, Leg Impairment Jonathan Snyder, of Charlotte, N.C., 40, Arm Impairment Natasha Stasiuk, of Canada, 24, Intellectual Impairment Conor Stone, of Ireland, 27, Arm Impairment Joshua Tankersley, of Fort Worth, Texas, 36, Leg Impairment Jordan Thomas, of Nashville, Tenn., 33, Multiple Limb Amputee Mariano Tubio, of Argentina, 42, Seated Players Kellie Valentine, of McKean, Pa., 51, Arm Impairment Kevin Valentine, of Winter Garden, Fla., 48, Leg Impairment Patti Valero, of Brandon, Fla., 59, Leg Impairment Eliseo Villanueva, of Fort Bragg, N.C., 55, Arm Impairment Adem Wahbi, of Belgium, 23, Neurological Impairment Cathy Walch, of Buford, Ga., 56, Arm Impairment Robert Walden, of Queen Creek, Ariz., 50, Arm Impairment Dennis Walters, of Jupiter, Fla., 72, Seated Players David Watts, of South Africa, 34, Leg Impairment Joshua Williams, of Canada, 37, Leg Impairment Hayato Yoshida, of Japan, 38, Leg Impairment Peyton Zins, of Indianapolis, Ind., 20, Neurological Impairment
The U.S. Golf Association has added a national championship to its 2022 slate.
The U.S. Golf Association has added a national championship to its 2022 slate.
The U.S. Adaptive Open Championship will be a showcase for top golfers with disabilities.
The No. 6 course at historic Pinehurst Resort & Country Club will host the event July 18-20, 2022. The USGA also announced that the 2023 event will be at Pinehurst No. 6, July 17-19.
This event brings the total number of USGA events to 15. The USGA made a pledge in 2017 to establish this event.
“Since 1895, our championships have provided the world’s best players with an opportunity to showcase their skills on a global stage, compete for a national championship and achieve their dreams,” said USGA Senior Managing Director, Championships John Bodenhamer, said in a statement.
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“After years of planning and delays caused by the global pandemic, we are proud to bring that same opportunity to the adaptive golf community through this championship, and to do so at Pinehurst, our second home. We believe this effort will spur participation for golfers with disabilities and hope it inspires others in the industry to make the game and its competitions more welcoming to all.”
The U.S. Adaptive Open have a field of 96 golfers. The format is a 54-hole, stroke-play competition. It’s open to men and women, both professionals and amateurs. The USGA says the event is for golfers with “either physical impairment, sensory impairment (vision), or intellectual impairment, who have a WR4GD Pass as well as an authorized World Handicap System (WHS) Handicap Index.”
Further eligibility requirements, field composition and other competitive format details will be announced at a later date. The application process is expected to open in February.
