Golf fueled by Autism… a Touring Pro’s story
I was thrilled Wednesday to get an invite to play in the Nationwide Children’s Hospital Invitational Pro-Am at OSU Scarlet Course. It’s a tournament for the Nationwide Tour, which is the feeder tour for the PGA. The top 25 finishers on the money list on the Nationwide Tour earn their PGA card, so it’s a huge deal in the golf world.
Cabot Rea and I were paired with a fella named Greg Chalmers. I’d heard of him a little bit, as he’d played several years on the PGA Tour and had been on the leaderboard in some tournaments. He’s currently 4th on that money list, which means he’s headed back to the PGA Tour next year.
We had no idea we would be paired with him, but how lucky we were. A super guy--great calm attitude and positive approach, and an incredibly sweet golf swing. He’s in his mid-30’s--a native of Sydney, Australia--so we practiced copying his accent all day. Greg now lives full-time in Dallas.
As we walked down the 1st fairway, Greg and I had hit our first shots in about the same area---just that his was 60 yards ahead of mine! He asked if I had kids and I told him two---I asked him the same question and he said he had kids. I volunteered that Brady had autism.... and his eyes sparked. “Well that’s interesting...” he said. “My son has autism.”
We spent the next 4 hours off and on talking about therapies, Michael Savage (a moron, btw), chelation and all the current buzz topics. His son, Max, is now 5 years old and will attend school this fall without an aide. He’s come a long way since being diagnosed before his 2nd birthday, exactly when Brady was diagnosed. Greg and I talked about the virtues of ABA therapy and the behaviors it can correct. Max, unlike Brady, is verbal. His issues seem to be with obsessive behaviors and some social issues (eye contact, etc...). But he’s made tremendous progress over the past 3 years, and Max stands an excellent chance of normal schooling and childhood.
But Greg deals with something (to a much, much greater degree than me) that bothers me. Being away from home. I just work long hours and 6th and 7th days often. Greg works out of town more than half of the year, travelling around the country and to Australia to play tournaments and making the money Max needs for his therapy. “It’s just tough” Greg says matter-of-factly. He calls home frequently just to hear about the latest breakthrough or what’s coming next.
Greg’s the first athlete I’ve come to know who’s raising a child with autism---obviously there are thousands. To be gone from home as much as he is, it would be easy for Greg to leave it to the misses and focus solely on his career. Greg’s not that kind of a dad. He’s well-studied and trying to be active in Max’s therapy, just from far away.
We exchanged information and will stay in touch---if you happen to stop by the Nationwide Tour event this week, I hope you’ll find time to cheer for Chalmers. He’s another champion of our cause.
