Insider: Green set for inspirational return
By Vartan Kupelian, PGATOUR.COM Contributor
Ken Green knows what it's like inside the ropes. For him, simply returning to competitive golf is the motivation. Beyond that, who knows what will or can happen?
Now more than ever before, Green understands this much: Nothing is guaranteed and nothing is certain.
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On Friday, Green, 51, will do something nobody else ever has. He will become the first amputee to tee it up on the Champions Tour. Alongside partner Mike Reid, Green will return to the Champions Tour at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf, and he will cherish every moment.
"There are probably two things that stick out for me," Green said Wednesday at Westin Savannah Harbor Golf Resort & Spa. "One is competing again. Golf is everything to me. I love golf. Some guys play golf just because they're damn good and they make a living. I love golf. I'm in the Arnie Palmer thing. Go out and play.
"Just five months ago, I was thinking that I should only do it if I feel like I can honestly try to play some good rounds. Numerous things have happened. Who is to say that something else can't happen where you literally will never have a chance? I want to be able to say I have played, gone out there inside the ropes. There's a special feel inside the ropes playing golf."
There is one other, small thing.
"Desperately trying to make some birdies for Mike," said Green, a five-time winner on the PGA TOUR in the 1980s.
Last June, Green's brother, Bill, and girlfriend were killed in an accident that resulted in the amputation of Green's lower right leg. In January, Green's 21-year-old son, Hunter, was found dead in his dorm room at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Life has taken some painful turns for the Connecticut native who has undergone extensive rehabilitation with a prosthetic limb and will become the first amputee to compete in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event.
While Green admits he still has some very bad days looking back, all he wants to do this week is look forward.
Green never doubted this moment would come, that he would someday have a driver in his hand and stand on the first tee with the ball on a peg.
"I can honestly say I did not," he said. "Unfortunately, the mind thinks differently than the body, and I started hitting some shots that I never hit, that's put some doubt, some concern. But I still believe that I can pull this off. It's just going to be a little longer time than I probably would have liked.
"It's been a journey. Sometimes that's what the Big Guy does. I can honestly tell you without the faith that I have now, I don't know if I could have handled everything that's come my way. So that's helped. You know, I didn't always have the monster faith that I do in God. It has helped."
The faith won't change what he will feel on the first tee.
"I will be absolutely petrified," Green said.
Reid and Green tied for 25th last year. Reid's previous partner, Johnny Miller, decided not to have another go in 2009. Reid needed a partner. He picks up the story.
"I had made a couple calls to different people, and I guess the word got through to Ken that I was looking for a partner," Reid said. "He called me, and that's what started our partnership last year."
Reid never thought twice about who would be his partner this year.
"It wasn't long after (Green's) accident," Reid said. "I sent him a text probably a month after. I said, 'We can beat most of these teams on three legs so get your game ready.'"
There is a message within the message, and Reid wants to make sure nobody misses it.
"It's easy to say, 'Boy, this is great for Ken. This is really going to lift his spirits," Reid said. "But it's the other way around. That's the message I hope nobody misses. He's lifting us. What a measure of courage to be here and to be committed."
Green has played in a couple of small events as an amputee. In Ft. Myers he shot 73-77 and "I putted really well to do that," he said. Then came a bout with pneumonia and a hospital stay. Last week he spent time with his instructor, Peter Kostis, who has worked with Green for 27 years.
"We're making some changes that are totally foreign to me, complete opposite," Green said. "When you've done a certain move for 30-some-odd years and he says, 'OK, we're going to do the opposite,' it's not really easy.
"The way I look at it, we've got everything to gain and nothing to lose. Actually, I've been looking at the thing and thinking, OK, maybe we got a shot with that team or maybe we can handle that. But it's going to be what it's going to be."
Reid's view is much the same.
"We're realists and yet competitors," Reid said. "It's easy to say fellowship is more important than championship. We're going to go out and do the best we can. Over and above that, we're going to have fun. It's good to get together again and be on the golf course."
Looking forward again, Green is setting his sights on En-Joie Golf Course in Endicott, N.Y., as a target date for his solo return to the Champions Tour.
"I am hoping that I can get these swing changes down, and I'm hoping to play at the end of June at the Dick's Sporting Goods event," he said. "I've always liked that course. It's relatively flat. That's probably where I'm hoping to fire it up."
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