LACKAWANNA COUNTY, Pa. — No matter how you hold a club or take a stance at the tee, the game of golf can be enjoyed by everyone, regardless of your physical abilities.
And it's folks like Anna Kittleson, the Adaptive Golf Manager with the Golf Association of Philadelphia, who work to make it happen, "Golf is actually one of the cool sports where we actually don't adapt the sport at all. The player adapts to the sport. The Sport doesn't adapt to the player. So, anybody can play regardless of their disability, and you can play with people with or without disabilities," she said.
Anna teamed up with Joe Salva, the President of Olypant-based Individual Abilities in Motion, to bring her clinic to Glen Oak Country Club in South Abington Township, "So I am, as I mentioned, a nonprofit organization. We exist to support people with mobility impairments. We do that in several different ways," he said.
By bringing members of that community together for social and adventure gatherings.
"We also have a Reach Program, which is a program that focuses on trying to promote access to recreation and adaptive opportunities within the community," explained Salva.
That is how Joe and Anna connected to bring this new opportunity to folks here in northeastern Pennsylvania: "We've never had people have the opportunity to do a golf event. So this was a prime example or a prime opportunity for people to participate in a new activity that we haven't offered before. And we also had a discussion on how we might be able to work with them in the future to get more adaptive golf equipment out there in the community at local golf courses," said Salva.
Anna says there are companies out there that make different tools, like these, that attach to a club head that can be used by people with different abilities, "This individual who uses this doesn't have full hands, so he tucks it under his arms and grabs down here."
But one of the coolest ones is this solo rider, "So if you're an individual who uses a wheelchair, we actually have an awesome golf cart device for you called a solo rider. So, a solo rider is a golf cart that allows an individual to hit from a seated position. And so if you have an adaptive golf clinic near you, they'll likely have one for you to try out," said Kittleson.
Individual Abilities in Motion hopes this is not the only time golf is available to these golfers and hopes his adaptive recreation program grows from here.
"I think there's a lot of, you know, opportunities out there for people with mobility impairments. And we just want to be able to give everybody the same opportunities to participate in recreational activities as people without mobility impairments might," added Salva.
If you want to find an adaptive golf clinic near you, click here.