Courage and The Love Of The Game Of Golf

     Courage--The American College Dictionary defines courage as the quality of mind that enables one to encounter difficulties and danger with firmness or without fear. When life take a turn and not always for the best, how do you handle it? Do you give up on the things you love and the life you once led, or do you make adjustments so that you can return to as normal a life as circumstances will allow? Do you let life pass you by and become a victim, or do you fight and make lemonade out of lemons. Courage is taking up that fight and tasting the lemonade.
      Courage is about not accepting the label of "disabled". Things may have changed as far as what used to be--physically and mentally--but it is what you do after the changes in your life happen that are important. Sometimes a condition exists from birth, but what do you do about it? I prefer "physically or mentally challenged".  Disabled to me means it just ain't going to happen. Physically or mentally challenged means that we can work with what we have to improve our quality of life so that you are better able to enjoy what life has to offer. Courage means let's get to it, I'm not giving up.
     I would assume that since you are my readers, most of you love the game of golf. What would you do if you woke up and in the condition you were in you could not play golf?  Would you just give up or would you seek ways in which you could adapt so that you wouldn't have to give up golf?  Courage is knowing that you have limits, but finding ways to push those limits to the edge or somehow break through them. With the technology and methods we have today, that is very possible.  Golf is no exception and you don't have to give up playing the game we all love. It is totally up to the individual to follow the path and find the accommodations that can be used to get you playing.
      I have come across or have read about many physically and mentally challenged golfers.  There were those who have lost limbs due to a traumatic accident or health reasons. Some are wheelchair bound from an accident or from birth. Some have mental challenges such as autism or other conditions.  The good news is that many of these courageous people are playing golf.  They have taken up the challenge and have found ways to either take up the game or get back into it. In fact, I had the pleasure of playing with a man who had one arm and didn't play golf with his prosthetic arm. He cleaned my clock as a matter of fact.
      Courage is the ability to deal with adversity without allowing fear and doubt to get in the way. Physically and mentally challenged golfers who
still find a way to get back into the game are like that.  As the  U.S. Marines say, improvise, adapt, overcome.

Golf is for everyone. Improvise, adapt and overcome.