With the KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship in town this week, with it comes ancillary benefits including a program for veterans to help them improve their golf game, and their lives.
Area veterans met at Harbor Shores Monday to participate in a PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) clinic led by PGA of America Golf Professionals and Corebridge Financial Team members Tracy Phillips and David Hutsell.
According to the PGA, even as Phillips and Hutsell prepared for the most prestigious Major in senior golf, they took time to lead the clinic with the support of 13 additional PGA of America Professionals from the Michigan PGA Section. They taught the fundamentals of the game and provided Veterans the opportunity to connect with one another while onsite at a major championship.
“This is something that we as PGA Golf Professionals can certainly do to help,” said Phillips. “We’re the recipients of their hard work and sacrifice. They gave us the freedom to allow us to do this. For me, It’s kind of the icing on the cake in terms of being able to play in two major championships and also work with Veterans.”
Phillips, the Director of Instruction at Cedar Ridge Country Club in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, made his PGA Championship debut at age 61 last week at Valhalla Golf Club. This week he will compete in his sixth KitchenAid Senior PGA Championship.
Hutsell, the Lead Instructor at Baltimore Country Club in Baltimore, Maryland, has played in 10 PGA Tour events, two PGA Championships (2010, ‘11) and is ready to compete at Harbor Shores this week. But first, he was helping Veterans such as Army Veteran Michael Gower, who just competed in the 9th PGA HOPE Secretary’s Cup in Louisville, Kentucky, ahead of the PGA Championship, as part of Team Michigan. He spent Monday at Harbor Shores enjoying the clinic.
“PGA HOPE means I have another option of something that I can do, and it was really cool being here at the clinic,” said Gower, a PGA HOPE graduate. “Golf has given me a whole new realm of possibility of getting outside, especially with my son. We just got him his first set of clubs for his birthday. It used to just be video games inside, but now I can take him and go outside and play golf. Ultimately, what most Veterans love is to be able to be outside and do something. HOPE helps us do that.”
PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere) is the flagship military program of PGA REACH, the charitable foundation of the PGA of America. PGA HOPE introduces golf to Veterans and Active Duty Military to enhance their physical, mental, social and emotional well-being.
This year, the program plans to impact more than 17,000 Veterans through a developmental 6-to 8-week curriculum led by PGA of America Professionals trained in adaptive golf and military cultural competency. The cost of programming is free to all Veterans.
