by Jeff Skinner
Lee Trevino called the Champions Tour the “Ultimate Mulligan.” And for most of the Seniors Champions it truly is. They get to play golf with their friends for a ton of money and live the life they always wanted without the pressures of the PGA Tour. They all admit it’s a great deal.
Ken Green is back playing on the Champions Tour this week but his life is anything but ideal. Still dealing with the physical and emotional scars of the accident that took his girlfriend, his brother, his dog and his right leg, Green is living a nightmare. Eric Adelson details Green’s problems in a disturbing account of a life torn apart after his horrific RV crash. Green lives with agonizing pain as a result of his amputated right leg. He is barely surviving mentally and he has thoughts of suicide often.
All this makes playing golf sound insignificant but to Green playing golf is everything. He feels it’s is only way back to normalcy, if anyone can ever be normal after such an experience.
He is playing in the Dick’s Sporting Goods Open on a sponsor’s exemption and trying to piece his life back together. He is caught in a catch 22 of sorts. He needs to play more golf to get better so he can compete in more tournaments but the more he plays the more his leg hurts him.
He was very appreciative of the exemption for this week but realizes it’s only a matter of time before they dry up unless he plays better and brings something to the tournament.
Here’s a real chance for the Champions Tour and the individual tournaments to make a difference in one man’s life. The tours like to broadest all they do for charity, and rightly so. Each week local charities reap huge rewards from all the professional golf tours. Now it’s time for them to take care of one of their own. Give Ken Green all the exemptions he needs. Let him play as often as he can so he can get his life back on track. I understand that there are restrictions on the amount of sponsor’s exemptions a player can have but they can come up with something for Green. It’s an extraordinary case.
In the article Green says he doesn’t have a lot of friends on tour and that may be from his reputation as a rebel but he at least deserves a chance to start over. Doesn’t charity begin at home?
Link to Eric Adelson’s article.
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