All right, Larry. What did you think about today? How'd you do?
I didn't play my best. Let's just put it that way.
I didn't play terribly horrible, but
I had a quad. So
that's all I can say right now about that. But
it was a great day though. I still had fun.
You know, that's why we're out here, still have fun.
But, you know, I didn't score it away. I envisioned it.
Absolutely. What were some of the challenges of Pinehurst in particular?
Uh, you have to hit the green with your ball.
You can't roll it up there and that's, that's my adjustment for tomorrow.
Uh What do you think will help you do that?
Do you have a technique that you're gonna employ? Club up, baby, club up,
club up?
And hopefully, you know, I can get a little bit more arc on it comes in.
Absolutely. Yeah.
Is that something that you've been training for specifically,
or is this something we got here?
And you're like, man, I'm gonna have to adjust well,
because I played in another tournament,
had the same issues and I adjusted the next day.
So
that's all just clubbing up and, and, you know,
because it bother to travel as far here. So,
this is old hat for you. You got this? Yeah. Yeah.
It's just, like I said, just the adjustments. The main thing is you don't,
you can't win on the first day. You can only lose on the first day.
So, and I'm, hopefully, I didn't do that.
I hear you on that one. Yeah. So, how long you been playing golf?
I've been playing since 2001.
Right on. It quite a while at this point. Yeah. Yeah.
So I, uh, like I said, I got hurt in 89 and I picked up golf in 2001.
What got you into it.
Uh, my friends all started picking up the game of golf. So, uh,
I called the, uh,
uh
internet search, not Google before Google.
Uh
I looked up the adaptive golfing and I found a lady named Kathy Corbin that run the,
uh,
program out of Pall
Verde
in Phoenix,
you know, had lessons with her
and then she told me that, uh, the city course
Agua has, uh, a solo rider.
So that's when I went there and started hitting off the driving range
and finally got in the car and then took it all on out
and you, and you said, what did, what did they have there? A solo rider?
Yeah.
Is that, is that one of these?
That's exactly got, you got, you, is that the,
is that kind of the only company that makes the adaptive part?
No, there's this one and then there's what they call a para golfer,
which is a three wheel.
You'll see the guy Mariano's out here,
there's two wheels in the front and a little swivel wheel in the
back and it's got like a joystick and it'll stand you straight up.
Oh,
yeah.
Is that,
do you feel like that's an advantage if you're able to
do the standing straight up or do you prefer this one?
I prefer this way,
I may have to go up because these guys are starting to hit the ball a lot longer.
So, but
I mean, you can't, if you don't fix something that's not broke. Absolutely.
So, until, until I get, start getting smoked, you know,
and I need that extra distance, you know, I,
I'm fine where I'm at and then, you know, r I real,
I'm a realist person.
So, I mean, I realize that, like I said, July 21st, these young kids are coming up.
So my tournament winning these tournaments is gonna slowly get shorter
and shorter because you're gonna get these kids coming up.
You know,
there's gonna be a pair of athletes that are gonna jump ship.
Absolutely. What, what is your advice for, for young per athlete that's coming up?
Then
my, I would, my, my suggestion is, first of all, get instruction,
find somebody who can help you, you know, with the, because you got a different plane
or if you're gonna use and stand up, you know,
you gotta have somebody who knows what you're doing.
And the other thing is, is get clubs fitted for you.
That, that'll make a whole difference because
like me, I got mine three degrees flat.
So, I mean, just imagine, I straight up all you'd be doing is, but, yeah, I mean,
you'll essentially adjust your swing and all that,
but you shouldn't have to do that.
Absolutely.
Is there a,
is there a place you have to go to get the clubs custom fitted or can you go to any?
Well, most of them are,
the big companies are starting to catch on now.
Like I know Ping, which sponsored the US Disabled Open
with Jason Far.
Uh, they have a whole research department. They're working on, like, there's a, a
couple of guys Brandon out here, he plays with, uh,
like a paddle,
you know, under his arms because he has,
and so, you know, they're working on stuff like that and then, uh,
they're helping, you know, like the one arm arm guys with, you know,
just different ways to hold the clubs and stuff.
So there's a lot of research and development going on. So it's very exciting.
Is, is, uh,
is there something you're most excited about for the future
of the sport or is it the research side?
My excitement came from talking to John I, I can't pronounce his last name,
but he's the, uh, from the USGA.
And we had a conversation yesterday
about, uh, golf carts for,
uh,
wheelchair people.
And, you know, I was telling them we need the US G A's help
because
we can't do it. Nobody's listening to us.
You know, they say, you know, you go to a golf course, they don't have one,
we don't have one.
So, but he, he reassured me that
they are gonna actually put their muscle behind
making sure that these,
these golf courses know about these carts to make sure they get out there.
And
so I was really encouraged about that.
Are there other challenges that you faced up to this
point if you want to go golfing at a,
at a regular golf course?
Yeah, there's just no carts, there's very few of them.
I mean, I'm, I'm fortunate enough I got myself situated where I got,
I could play 20 different courses in Arizona
because I have Tron, I, you know, Tron has five carts.
Uh, city of Mesa, the Dobson Ranch has a car.
Uh,
so there's, and I also have my car too,
but I i it's hard to transport
it. I can imagine. You know, so,
and my theory on it is if you're providing a golf cart for everybody else, why
do we not get one?
Sure. Absolutely.
Absolutely.
Um, were there? I heard you kind of talking to the, the guy before about,
um, some, some challenges with like driving on the course.
Maybe I couldn't quite hear.
Oh, no, there's just people that are still learning, you know,
learning about adaptive golf
and, you know, they'll see you go out there and even Billy Fry,
I don't know if you met him but, you know, we have issues with people yelling at you,
get
up to,
you know, it's supposed to be golf carts on
and then, you know, we go up there and try to educate them, you know, hey, sir,
this is an adaptive golf cart.
You know, it's designed to have less footprint than your less
pound per square inch for, than your foot and stuff like that. So,
you know, the main thing is you gotta educate, you know,
if you get in a pissing match with them,
you know,
all you're gonna do is have a pissing match and nobody's gonna get accomplished.
You know, everybody's
so it's better off to take the high road and
just go over there and introduce yourself and say,
hey, sir, this is our ma'am
that this is, you know, adaptive carts that are,
that are in the course. Let me out here. Absolutely.
What are, what are some things maybe that you would want someone to know that
has never been introduced to adaptive golf before.
It's, it's a, you'll fall in love. It's, it's,
it's the most, I'd say it's the most healthiest drug you can find.
So if you need a drug,
III, I recommend you getting out there and getting yourself a set of clubs
and, and going at it because every time you go by the golf course,
your car is going to want to turn that way,
it's not gonna want to go the other way your wife tells you to go
or your husband, whatever.
Sounds like that could get you in trouble.
Yeah.
But it's good trouble. You know, it's better than me going to the bar and
drinking, coming home.
It seems like it seems like your wife has been very supportive.
Um, you know, talked to her a little bit yesterday.
Can you tell me about kind of what that's meant to you and,
and how your relationships maybe help with, with this journey?
See, now you can get me to cry.
No,
I was fortunate enough to have my wife come this year. I mean,
because when I go to other,
because I have identical twin daughters who have down syndrome autism,
diabetes,
uh,
thyroid issues. So it's, uh,
it's really a challenge to find somebody who could babysit.
So, for, for that many days. So when I go on my U,
you know,
like my USA G A tournament or my BG A which is Veterans Golf Association.
You know, she lets me go
and, and, and,
and the burden's on her. Not me.
I'm gonna do it. I love to do it,
but she's doing what she loves to do
so.
And then I, like I said, this time, you know,
we went to a wed, my niece's wedding and, uh,
we were outside and,
you know,
I was telling my family, it's like
this is big.
I need my wife there. And so
everybody got together, her side of the family, my side of the family
got together and they made it happen. I mean, my wife can't stay the whole time.
She's leaving tomorrow.
But, uh,
I'm grateful that she came.
Absolutely. How long have the two of you been together?
We got, our 15th anniversary was just in May. We didn't get to do anything. So
we did our little thing on Friday. We went out to dinner and went to see Top Gun and so.
Oh, nice. How'd you like it?
Yeah, it was good. I mean, I still think the first one was better.
Hey, who am I? The first one's a classic. Yeah. Yeah. So,
so, yeah. So, I mean, like I said, this, this tournament
was great because she got to come out and like I said, it's,
it's not in every, every tournament thing that she'll do.
Absolutely. Um, is there anything else that, that
you'd like to, to make a statement about?
Or if you have a soapbox moment message that, that you feel embodies.
Uh, Larry the, the most,
my,
my favorite saying is he who laughs the most wins
and that's why, you know, getting shot at 20 years old.
You know, I had to take a motto on it.
And that's my motto is he who laughs, wins because life is a joke.
I feel like
you're definitely winning. Larry. I saw you laughing out there a lot today,
bringing a lot of joy to people, you know, very, very
vocal and emotive out there.
And I think that that puts a smile on a lot of people's faces. So
thanks for, thanks for making this a great day for me and everybody else here.
And
thanks for being an inspiration with the inaugural open here.
Well, I appreciate it.
It was my pleasure. I'm proud, I'm happy, I'm proud of everybody here.
Um I'm grateful for everybody that came here. I'm grateful for the neighbors.
I'm grateful for the USGA. I'm grateful to solo rider.
I'm grateful to the USA G A.
I'm just grateful to everybody in the adaptive community who brought us together.
It's an amazing event and I will see you tomorrow and
I'm sure we'll get some more footage together as well.
Ok, perfect. All right.