We’re obsessed with truncating our language through the over-use of acronyms.
This trend infests our texts and emails. My initial response is…WTF? And yet, I also embrace the usage of GOAT (Greatest of All Time). In sports, this identifies game-changers. Michael Jordan is the GOAT in basketball; Orr or Gretzky in hockey; and Jack, Tiger or Annika (no last names needed) in golf.
But to me, there’s a higher order, saved for athletes who lift us out of our seats – and comfort zone. They change society, turning things temporal to things eternal. My list is short: Muhammad Ali and Terry Fox.
We all know Ali’s boxing career, and his crusade for social justice. Some argue that Fox wasn’t an athlete, but consider this: during his 1980 Marathon of Hope, he ran a marathon a day for 143 days, totalling 5,373 km before the cancer returned, ended his run, and his life, at age 22.
But his enduring spirit remains. His foundation has raised $800+ million for cancer research.
He changed the image of the disabled forever. They are to be admired, not pitied, and treated as equals. The definition of the word has been altered. There is nothing people with “abilities” can’t do.
With this in mind, I attended the late-September press day at the Humber Valley course in Toronto, home to the first 36-hole All Abilities Championship (Sept. 22-24), sanctioned by Golf Canada. I also played nine holes with Kevin Pritchard, 43, of Mississauga, one of the near 40 competitors. He was born with Down Syndrome and a hole in his heart. He plays in the physical and intellectually challenged category.
I still recall his picture-perfect swing, honed by his beloved late Uncle Gary, his mentor. He busted a series of near-perfect drives with pro-like proficiency. We played from the same tees, the same rules, and he didn’t want or need anyone’s pity.
Golf is the only sport that embraces the term handicap, using it to equalize scoring. But here’s the conundrum: for too many years, the game never made an effort to include those termed handicapped as participants. It did the opposite. This long and shameful era was accepted by the game’s overseers as par for the course. Once an egalitarian game, golf turned inward, and became mean-spirited, restrictive.
A history of misogyny, racism, and elitism followed, exemplified by a sign that sat on the lawn at Muirfield in Scotland. It said: no women or dogs allowed!
Golf practiced overt racism on the PGA Tour through its “Caucasian-only” membership rule. And playing at the Masters was striking because of its lily whiteness – except for all-black caddies.
When a young pro named Casey Martin asked the Tour in the late 1990s to allow him to use a cart because he suffered Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome, restricting circulation in his right leg which made it impossible for him to walk 18 holes, they said a loud NO! It will violate “the spirit of the game,” they said, with all the arrogance they could muster. Those jumping onboard to back these Luddites, was 18-time major winner, and GOAT, Jack Nicklaus.
A court case ensued, Martin’s legal team cited Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act, and the Supreme Court voted 7-2 in his favour. He joined the Tour in 2000, but didn’t have the game to stay. He did, however, make his point, which seemed lost on morally bankrupt reactionaries.
Golf always bristled when talk turned to inclusion. That’s why it’s so refreshing to see Golf Canada, ParaGolf Canada, and others, work hard to right longstanding wrongs. The only question is: why did it take everybody so long?
There’s not enough room in this column to document Kevin Pritchard’s tale. It started with a difficult birth, then an equally difficult youth, and has now culminated in his teeing it up this year at Humber Valley.
When he was born, his doctor referred to him as a “Mongoloid”. When he attended school, the bully-boy taunters mocked him as retarded; and when his family was given advice on what to do about his future, experts in the field said he should be institutionalized – locked away, discarded.
In an emotional one-hour interview with his father Dave (who now seconds as his caddy), he said as a family, it was decided to let this spirited boy go as far as he could go – in school, at work and through golf. He, his wife Barbara, and Kevin’s sister Michelle, “wouldn’t allow him to rot away.”
Kevin joined Special Olympics and become a spokesperson. After he got through school, he got a full-time job at Wal-Mart stacking shelves on the overnight shift. He is a model employee – not taking a sick day in 14 years. His golf has taken him all over world, from China to Augusta National to Humber Valley. He played in the Pro-Am at the Tiger Woods-sponsored event at the Congressional Golf Club on the PGA Tour.
He didn’t win his category at the All Abilities event, but during one round, shot his best ever 9-holes, a sparkling 38.
The conclusion: Golf helped him find that immortal sweetspot in life.
My nine holes with him was one of the most inspirational. We hit from the same tee blocks, played by the same rules. He didn’t ask for any gimmies on the greens, and he definitely didn’t want any pity because he was “different,” a label that dogs him wherever he goes, whatever he does. No, he played with passion, and like all of us, he loved every minute of his time in the sun. He was just Kevin the golfer.
Terry Fox was a passionate golfer and he would be thrilled that his country now has an All Abilities Championship. He’d like the name, too, with emphasis on abilities. Gone is the dreaded dis.
Canada’s GOAT+ is the spiritual leader of the All Abilities movement, and in his honour, we should offer up some collective thanks. Fox’s audacious Marathon of Hope shocked our sensibilities. He changed the world’s perception of personal limitations.
To Fox, I offer up this final message, and will lean on another acronym to do it: RIP my friend. The work you started in 1980, is finally getting done.
