Setting an example, nothing stops these players from enjoying a typical day on the course.

by Brett Avery

TIM BERG beamed when he holed his first putt in 12 years. It's not that he has a notorious case of the yips. It's just that, until last month, he was not given a chance to putt.

Since losing the use of his legs in an auto accident in October 1982, the 37-year-old from Marysville, Ohio, has hit every full shot leaning against the seat of a golf cart. But the courses which extended the opportunity to play drew the line on driving the cart onto the green. Once his ball reached a putting surface, Berg watched from the fringe as a friend, putting his ball, determined his final score.

Last month, however, Berg began recapturing his putting touch -- a momentous reintroduction, even if some scuffed putts rolled less than halfway to the hole. When Berg made his first appearance in the national tournament conducted by the Association of Disabled American Golfers, he used for the first time a single-player cart allowing him to roam any part of the course.

"I loved it," the former 2-handicap golfer said. "It opened up a completely new facet for me."

Berg and more than 50 other disabled players, representing nearly half the nation's states, and a similar number of able-bodied teammates took part in a two-day tournament outside Denver that serves a myriad of purposes. It not only gives disabled players a chance to compete -- for many their first opportunity since becoming disabled -- but offers a networking forum, the opportunity to learn of new equipment and have some fun.

The ADAG was born four years ago as a result of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), signed by President George Bush and designed to incorporate access for the disabled into all facets of life. Headed by executive director Greg Jones, the ADAG has become a clearinghouse of information.

"We are not advocates for disabled golf, but advocates for the game and including everyone in the game," says Jones, a Denver resident who has used crutches since contracting polio at age 3. "If we were successful, this organization would be out of business, because we would become just another part of golf."

The national tournament -- organizers patiently remind anyone who refers to it as a "championship" that it is a friendly tournament -- has become the nexus of disabled golf. The event is contested at Fox Hollow at Lakewood Golf Course, which for three days also served as a laboratory for a range of studies.

Situated in the foothills southwest of Denver, the Fox Hollow complex by its outward appearance is anything but disabled-friendly. Set on rugged, sloping terrain, the community's first municipal course has 27 holes surrounded by waist-high native grasses dotted with wildflowers. Those areas act as an ecological buffer, providing a permanent habitat for both wildlife and stray shots.

Despite its treacherous appearance, however, Fox Hollow is one of the nation's best examples of how tweaking a design can accommodate the ADA -- and players who rely on wheels or other assists. Fox Hollow's original design had been completed when the ADA was signed, and architect Denis Griffiths, working with a local committee, puzzled over how to incorporate the act's requirements into the layout.

"We visited the local courses with disabled players and found examples of how the course made it tough for them to play," explained Don Tolson, superintendent at Fox Hollow who oversaw the course's construction. "The committee sorted through the list and came up with about 20 recommendations."

The committee pointed out hurdles as simple as curbs on cart paths and inaccessible drinking fountains. As a result, they conceived a course that is as close to disabled-friendly as a wheelchair-bound player could imagine. All tees and greens are sculpted into gradual slopes, and their expansive size is ideal for wheeled vehicles. Bunkers have flat bottoms and multiple points for access, and are maintained to keep sand firm enough to support wheels.

"There are inaccessible spots on the course," Tolson said, "but it certainly seems fine with (disabled players), and if it's okay with them, it's okay with us." After all, there are plenty of able-bodied players who refuse to leave the fairway to search for a stray shot.

But what of those parts of the course a wheel-assisted player may want to but cannot reach, such as the tall grasses between the fairways or a steep downslope? The USGA Rules of Golf Committee is working to draft Rules modifications that take into account situations confronted by five categories of disabled players: the blind, amputees, players requiring canes or crutches, those requiring wheelchairs, and mentally challenged golfers.

Trey Holland, chairman of the Rules Committee, has drafted a set of proposals which strike a balance between the game's basic tenets and the various obstacles a disabled player confronts. For instance, Rules 13-4a and 13-4b, concerning testing the condition and touching the ground in a hazard, would penalize a player who employs a cane or crutch. Under the first draft of proposed rules, those actions would not be included if the player did not intend to test the condition of the hazard.

While Fox Hollow is a disabled player's dream, and the ADAG's only site for its three-year-old national tournament, it only intensifies the scrutiny given to the thousands of courses which have yet to comply with ADA requirements. Owners and operators of hundreds of courses have provided a steady stream of telephone calls to Fox Hollow and ADAG officials, asking how to begin retrofitting a course.

"I've had them call me with anything from excitement and interest to fear and loathing," Tolson said. Added Jones, "Their biggest fear is, 'If I let one play, I have to let them all play.'"

Owners and operators are slowly beginning to see that the line between that first player and all disabled golfers isn't a chasm. Jones noted that many times the staff at a course has not been trained to address a simple request from a disabled golfer. "Can we flag the cart, indicate that somebody can do something (such as ignore cart-path regulations) that others cannot?" Jones asked. "Many times the disabled golfers are not looking for much."

The scant information available on the impact of disabled players to a course's daily operation is being expanded, thanks to two studies conducted during the ADAG tournament. In the first, researchers from Indiana University scrutinized pace of play, frequently cited by daily-fee owners as their biggest reason for limiting or ignoring disabled play. The second study, by a team from Rutgers University, measured the impact of mobility devices (from wheels to crutches and canes) on greens.

During the first round Berg took part in the Rutgers study -- funded by the USGA, PGA of America and Golf Course Superintendents Association of America. Berg drove his one-man cart, a prototype being tested by tournament sponsor Electric Mobility, across a swath of a practice green measuring a foot wide and nine feet long.

Researchers, who had already measured the green for speed, firmness and turf density, then periodically measured the track to determine how the tires compacted the turf and base, and how quickly it rebounded from Berg's brief ride. Gathering measurements to the hundredth of a millimeter, the researchers hope to determine whether superintendents should fear repeated use of one-player carts on greens. It is the first step toward developing usage guidelines for players and maintenance guidelines for superintendents.

Berg saw little cart damage in Tuesday's second round, when he went out in the day's last group. "We didn't have a single putt or chip shot that went off line because of wheel marks," he said.

He should know about the putting part. It had been nearly 13 years, since that fateful last round the Saturday before his car accident, when he'd used the cherished Ping Anser he received during his junior year in high school. When his friends putted out for him back home, he wrote down on the scorecard whatever they took. And, he can assure you, there's nothing worse than owning up to someone else's three-putt.

There's also nothing better than one-putting on your own. At the 17th hole of the final round, Berg's tee shot stopped within four feet of the cup.

"Winning the closest-to-the-hole was great," Berg said, "but when that putt went in for a birdie, it was even more gratifying. To be able to hit it up there close was one thing, but to be able to finish out the hole was the best."