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They say it’s called golf because all of the other four-lettered words were used.
That’s true. Hope was taken.
“How’d it feel,” Chad Plein asked.
“Heaven,” Vietnam Veteran, Roger Wasson said.
For two hours, a band of our American veterans were laughing. Disabilities seen and unseen were left in the clubhouse while they were draining memories on the golf course.
“It means a lot,” fellow Vietnam Veteran, Robert Gustad said. “Because a lot of us have trouble leaving the house.”
The Par-3 course at Oscar Bloom is far from Vietnam and Afghanistan but it’s still foreign to our veterans. It’s quiet yet exciting – frustrating and therapeutic.
“We played together and that helps,” Gustad said. “We all have PTSD and this helps a lot.”
“We’re all in the same boat,” Wasson adds, “and I think don’t think any of us had a bad time today.”
Wasson heard about PGA HOPE, which stands for Helping Our Patriots Everywhere. Phone call after call sent him to Texas and Florida but eventually to Rick Grayson at Rivercut. And the 60th chapter was born in Springfield.
“I’ll remember this for the rest of my life,” Grayson said.
Over eight weeks, Grayson teaches the veterans how to play despite most of them never having picked up a club.
“Rick helped us overcome our handicap so we can all come out here and golf,” Gustad said.
A team scramble with prizes on almost every hole is the conclusion of the program. It has rewards taken home to their families.
“It means a lot of us,” Connie Gustad, Robert’s wife said. “It changes how they feel and how they’re with us at home too.”
“They don’t get out much,” Susie Green adds. “They don’t like crowds, but this has given them the confidence.”
PGA HOPE will have a new session start for the Springfield area in mid June. You can call Rick Grayson at Rivercut Golf Course for more information at (417) 891-1645.
