Golf helps veterans get back in the game
Peaceful sport soothes stress from war
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Golf is not Marine Lance Cpl. Daniel Gasca's sport of choice. Throughout his round at Sligo Creek Golf Course in Silver Spring Thursday, he hit wayward tee shots into the trees, mishit wild chip shots over the greens, and he even whiffed on a shot.
The thin 22-year-old with an athletic build prefers basketball or football, contact sports he played while growing up in Texas. But after losing both legs during an ambush while he was serving in Iraq in 2008, golf is one of the few sports Gasca can still play; and he does it often, no matter how many double bogeys he picks up along the way.
"It's not about the fastest or the strongest, you just go out and try to have fun… but it's a pretty hard game."
With its laid-back nature but high level of mental and physical concentration, golf has become a popular rehab method for wounded veterans, specifically in the downcounty area with its proximity to Walter Reed.
"When you're out here, there's pretty much no stress," said Army Sgt. Tim Johannsen, 25, who also lost both legs when his Humvee ran over an improvised explosive device in Iraq in June 2007. "I mean, there's obviously stress playing golf, but the stress of every day, normal life mostly goes away."
For soldiers wounded in combat, specifically those targeted by IEDs like Gasca and Johannsen, the most lasting physical effects are the loss of balance and flexibility, said Jim Estes, president of the Salute Military Golf Association, based in Germantown. The SMGA, founded in 2007, has served more than 300 wounded veterans, many through a golf-therapy program at the Olney Golf Park.
While most sports require balance and flexibility, few can provide as much therapy as golf in both areas – without a high-speed, high-contact environment, Estes said. But perhaps golf's most redeeming quality for wounded veterans is its effect on their fragile psyches as they deal with events far more tragic than a missed five-foot putt.
"It takes a lot of their time and they have a lot of time on their hands," Estes said. "… We try to get them out of the hospital as quickly as possible so they can change their mental outlook on things.
"When you are told you have several things wrong with you every day, it becomes depressing."
Often outweighing the physical benefits, the mental demands of golf make it an especially useful tool for veterans suffering from brain damage or post-traumatic stress disorder, Estes said. There is no greater example of those benefits than one of his best students, Army Staff Sgt. Ramon Padilla.
While serving in Afghanistan in July 2007, Padilla's base was ambushed by militants, and he was hit in the head with a rocket-propelled grenade. It blew off his left arm and caused a traumatic brain injury, and he was eventually transported to Walter Reed.
Since that day, Padilla says golf has given him his life back. He plays constantly, is now an employee and teacher with SMGA and even helped design a prosthetic arm attachment that allows him to firmly hold a club like an able-bodied golfer. Through SMGA, he's met Oprah Winfrey and hit a tee shot with Tiger Woods at the opening ceremony of the AT&T National golf tournament in Bethesda last year.
He has found solace in the game, which often brings him – and Gasca and Johannsen – to Sligo Creek. Living in Silver Spring and Wheaton and rehabbing at Walter Reed, the soldiers value having a short, low-pressure, nine-hole course nearby where they can enjoy their newest passion with the rest of society.
"This course is a good course, because it's not a hard course," Johannsen said. "I live right around the corner and can come here whenever I want."
With the course scheduled to close on Oct. 1 because it was ruled a financial drain on the county golf system, all three men support County Councilwoman Valerie Ervin's proposal to run the course as a nonprofit used for veteran rehabilitation in the future. Despite the success of the Olney program, it only uses a driving range, so when many players want to graduate to a real course, they often go to Sligo Creek on their own, without intensive instruction, Estes said.
Ervin is currently focused on getting the county council to approve a $150,000 appropriation to keep the course open up to two more years – a public hearing for which will be held Tuesday – but she has had preliminary talks with the Maryland Department of Veterans Affairs to partner at Sligo Creek.
"Within three miles of this facility, there is Walter Reed and other veterans' facilities," Ervin (D-Dist. 5) of Silver Spring said at Sligo Creek Thursday. "It's a small way to give back to [the veterans], and the surrounding community, to keep this course open."
For Padilla, the physical recovery hasn't been a problem lately, it's the mental recovery that needs day-to-day mending – and a reliable place like Sligo Creek to do so. While the left arm is the most important body part for a golf swing, Padilla already swings with the fluidity and power of any other amateur player.
"You get disappointed with some shots but then you come back and recover from that bad shot," said Padilla, 34, who lives with his wife and four children in military housing in Wheaton. "Golf actually prepares you a little bit for life too, the ups and downs of it."
His scorecard can attest to that.
After scoring a par on the second hole after a remarkable shot from the sand bunker, an errant tee shot landed him in the trees on the third hole. He hacked the ball along the tree line a few times, but when he was about 60 yards from the green, he then hit a high, arching chip shot that landed five feet beyond the hole and spun back. He tapped in for a respectable bogey.
The next hole yielded a double bogey for Padilla, but despite the moans and groans typical of even lifelong golfers, he soon found joy in his playing partner and newest student Gasca. After a tee shot deep in the trees, Gasca hit a fantastic chip to about 25 feet from the hole. He lined up the putt with Padilla's help and sunk it for a miraculous par.
Gasca hooted and hollered, and raised his arms in celebration as an excited Padilla quickly ran over and gave him a high-five with his right arm.
A public hearing before the Montgomery County Council to discuss a $150,000 special appropriation to keep the Sligo Creek Golf Course open for another one to two years will be held 1:30 p.m. Tuesday in the hearing room of the Stella B. Werner Council Office Building, 100 Maryland Ave. in Rockville.
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