Determination & Golf -- Rehabilitation For The Disabled

The story is best told in this account by Saanich News intern Andrew Farris, who spent time with Macdonald recently discovering how the former Ottawa resident has recovered and what he's doing now for others through the Victoria Disabled Golfers Association (On Facebook)..

By Andrew Farris
SAANICHNEWS.com

Stephen Macdonald awoke in a fog. He was lying in a hospital bed in Ottawa, bound up so tightly in casts he could hardly move. Beside him stood his wife and son.

"I looked down the bed and asked them why I was there - if I'd broken a foot or something," he said.

Turns out, the 51-year-old had just awoken from a deep coma.

Six weeks before, he was driving down a highway outside Kingston, Ontario, when a driver in the oncoming lane drifted across the yellow paint. They collided head on at high speeds. The other driver was killed instantly.

Had it not been for the rapid response of a medivac helicopter Macdonald was told he too would have died at the scene.

The Ottawa resident spent the next four months in hospital recovering. It was during this time that he and his wife decided to move to Victoria because "you don't have to push a wheel chair through three feet of snow."

That was seven years ago. Since then, the retired computer software programmer has been determined to rehabilitate himself. Golf would be a key part of that.

Problem was, though he's vastly improved from when he couldn't walk at all, he still needs leg braces and a cane.

His right arm also cannot extend its full length. Determined to overcome these obstacles, Macdonald has learned to use a natural-golf style and developed his technique to suit his circumstances.

He uses a wider stance and a baseball bat grip. He foregoes practice swings and doesn't move below the waist.
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"I can't hit it as far but it is a little straighter," he laughed, saying that his drives average around 125 yards.

Golfing he says, has given him confidence. It allows him to relax and forget the pain in his limbs, and it has aided greatly in his physical recuperation.

"I just enjoy it so much. It's been such a wonderful part of my rehabilitation."

Now he wants to help bring the joy of golfing to others with disabilities.

This summer, he started the Victoria Disabled Golfers Association (On Facebook). It's the only municipal level association of its kind he can find in North America.

"We don't have any model to go by," he said with a chuckle.

Regardless, Macdonald has a pretty good idea of what he hopes to accomplish.

Even though "there's a lot of new methods and technologies that allow (disabled) people to golf... There's just a lack of knowledge and awareness," even among the disabled themselves, he said.

His goals therefore are four-fold: raise awareness of disabled golf, run clinics and workshops for disabled golfers, access new assistive technologies and hold a tournament in Victoria specifically for disabled golfers.

The response so far has been very positive, he said. He's been in touch with 12 local golf courses, which use a hodge-podge of measures to support the disabled. He is hoping golf courses take further measures to unify their systems for allowing disabled golfing.

A one-month-old Facebook group has 55 members, but Macdonald believes there is much more room to grow.

He is sure that if he can raise the profile of disabled golfing, he can coax many former and new golfers onto the course.

"I hope it's gonna be a lot of fun," he laughed. "I'd just love to see a tournament with disabled people only."

E-mail sfmcdonald76@hotmail.com for more information on the VDGA.
sports@vicnews.com