they can be independent. So, the more we pick them up and put them in the wheelchair, the more they're not going to be able to do that themselves.

FS: How did you get the idea to create Adaptive Golfers?

GR: I've got to step back in my story. I was the state of Florida's poster child for the March of Dimes from 1972 to 1976. The national poster child came to Florida for a photo shoot with a known celebrity. They were still coming out of the polio stage and into more awareness about birth defects. The vaccine was out and it was helping get rid of the polio virus. A neighbor told my mom about the photo shoot, and my parents brought me down. During the photo shoot, a man walks in the room and my dad turned white. I had no idea who the man was. I knew my dad played golf, as he sometimes went on the weekends to play, but I didn't know what golf was. I was sitting on this man's lap in a photo shoot, with the national poster child. Turns out it was Arnold Palmer. Arnold Palmer's father had polio. Throughout his whole career, Arnold Palmer was a huge supporter of the March of Dimes.

Now going forward to me as an adult. A friend of my husband at the golf club where I had begun to play golf, introduced me to the chairperson for the March of Dimes walk, up in Sussex County. After I helped out as a volunteer, I said, “I wouldn’t mind getting reconnected with the March of Dimes, if you need some help with calls or something.” Then an internship became available and my friend talked me into accepting the internship. Then they offered me a position, as a Community Director, and I worked for the March of Dimes for six and a half years. I ran the walk at Liberty State Park and I built awareness for the March of Dimes.

So, after six and a half years of running the walk at Liberty State Park, a huge, high-profile walk, I got a phone call and was told that the March of Dimes was laying off 150 positions. They took the county walks and combined them into regional walks and got rid of all the county community directors. After this phone call, my friend and I were sitting in a diner, when she said to me, “You know, Jeanie, you’ve got something here with this golf.” I was using my ability to play golf to draw attention to my birth defects, to be able to start the conversation. All the research I did was going to be a resource, because throughout my journey trying to find out how to play golf, there was no one out there that said, “Hey, one-handed lady, I can teach you to play golf and here’s the kind of equipment you need.” I started forging relationships and I got involved with organizations, just as an ambassador. I didn’t fit into any of the categories. I’m saying that because there’s PGA Hope and the Veterans Golf Association, which,

even though I'm "guilty by association" as a military Navy brat (my brother, step brothers and nephews are Navy) and I've been brought up in military life, which I fit well in, I'm not actually a veteran. Then there is the One Arm Golfer's Association. I have two arms. I only have one hand.

So, I continued to forge relationships and got to know amazing organizations. My friend said, "Why don't you look and see what URLs are available?" I typed in adaptive golf and that was taken. Since, I'm the golfer, we came up with Adaptive Golfers. Now I am a world ranked adaptive golf player and I'm on the US disabled golf team.

My sole purpose and mission, no matter how much I’m doing outside of all of this, is to get the stuff that I didn’t know that was even out there, for the golfers who need it. But we don’t have an industry ready for us, so I can hoot and holler and get all these people turned on to golf that have all these different abilities, but the golf industry has no idea what to do with us when we get there. I’ve become an advocate, ambassador and an educator in that arena. It’s not just me, there have been pioneers preaching to the golf industry for decades. There’s so much research and stuff that was never acknowledged. I have somehow been blessed with the opportunity and the voice, to be able to be the concierge between the industries, not just the golf industry, but the allied health and rehabilitative industries.

TEE TIME: A golfer prepares for a round in his special cart; "There are experienced instructors, manufacturers, and organizations working to help adaptive golfers discover the wonders and therapeutic values of the game. "

FS: Tell us about Adaptive Golfers

GR: I founded Adaptive Golfers after experiencing, personally, the difficulty in finding instructors and resources to allow me to play golf.

Coddling robs the children of their independence. I was held back as a child and being limited. Don't keep them in. Push them out. As a parent, empower your children. Give them every opportun

When I began to notice that I was missing out from joining my husband, his friends and friends’ wives, on their rounds of golf, I realized it was time to start doing something rather than watching from the sidelines. During my quest to find an adaptive way to learn to play golf, I learned how limited options were for golfers with different needs. I soon began forging relationships with leading experts and product manufacturers and decided to create Adaptive Golfers, an in-person and online space, where those with different abilities can find programs and events, using modified clubs and equipment, that fit the space I struggled to find early on, in my own golf journey. I am the self-proclaimed “One-Handed Lady Golfer.”

I want to make it possible for children and adults with disabilities to learn or return to golf. I want that little girl, that was me, to be able to say, “Not today, bully, I’m going to go play golf. Go pick on somebody else.”

Despite the more than 61 million individuals living with physical, cognitive, sensory, health, and age-related handicaps in the United States, those with different needs have incredibly limited access to the resources they need in order to pursue golf.