Handicap not just a number for Blue Ridge’s Lee

BY MARTY MYERS
Times-Shamrock Writer

He steps between the markers, plugs his ball in the ground and takes a couple of practice swings.
With a solid click off the face of his driver, Greg Lee’s tee shot travels up the right side of the fairway.

It’s just the first shot of a high school golf match, but it’s already another victory for the Blue Ridge sophomore.

Every stroke is a win for Greg, who has been fighting another opponent since birth. He has cerebral palsy.

Cerebral palsy is a broad term for neurological disorders that in short, impair the control of body movement. In Greg’s case, it makes it virtually impossible for him to use his lower body in the golf swing.

He wears plastic composite braces emblazed on the back with the Pittsburgh Steelers logo.

Those help him walk, but limit his ball striking. There is, however, no limiting his enthusiasm for the game.

“I love the game,” Lee said. “It doesn’t bother me.

“I get out of (golf) that I can’t let something about me stop me from what I want to do. I can’t stand sitting in my room doing nothing and thinking, ‘I could do this, but I can’t.’ I’d rather go out and try it and if I can’t, if it comes to the point I can’t, well I can’t. But there are things I can do that other people think I couldn’t. And I like trying to prove people wrong.”

With his limitations, most other sports are out of the question. There was never any question that Lee was going to get out of life as much as he could.

“My husband is a big golf fan,” Greg’s mom, Lisa said. “His uncle has a 2 handicap. We have always encouraged him to do things. We don’t see his disability as that. We want him to do whatever he wants to do.”
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Greg’s interest in golf started when he was young, taking his dad’s clubs and chipping around the house. About three years ago, he was bitten by the golf bug.

“He knew his dad loved golf, and with his handicap, I had to find some sports that he loves to play,” said his father, Dan, who played football and basketball for Susquehanna High School in the mid 1980s. “I took him out once and he fell in love with it.”

How else could you describe his relationship with a game that’s hard enough for players with perfect balance?

“When he was young, he’d fall down, but he’d get right back up and hit it again,” Dan said. “He really didn’t want anybody’s help getting up. So when he fell, I’d say, ‘good try.’ He got up, went right to his ball and hit it again.

“Nothing slows him down, and that’s why I admire the kid.”

His father isn’t alone in that regard.

“His determination and perseverance out there is incredible to watch,” said Holy Cross junior Tom Dzwonczyk, who was paired with Lee in their match Monday. “You can see he does play a bit of a fade just because he doesn’t have the lower-body power. But he makes it work for him.

“I hope he sticks with the game because he’s got a great skill set now. If he stays with it, he’ll only get better.”

Talk of his skill set is a reminder that for golfers, most look at a handicap as a number, not a disability.

“I think of him as another golfer,” said Holy Cross junior Angelo Mancinelli, Lee’s opponent in the match. “He’s pretty good for having a disability. He can play with anyone.

“He’s inspired me a little bit, too. It’s not a big deal anymore. It’s just a bad shot. Get over it. Now that I see him, he’s hitting some shots better than me. It shows I have to practice a little bit more, too.”
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His swing is self-taught, and when winter limits outside play, Greg has come up with a way to get in some practice.

“I have hit golf balls in my room against a wall before, with blankets up,” Greg said. “I have done that. I have cement walls so the ball comes back at me hard.

“I also have a 9-foot putting mat that brings the ball back.”

That explains what is one of the strengths of his game.

“He’s a good putter, which is a key in this game,” Dzwonczyk said. “If he continues to roll the ball like that, he’ll be fine.”

With balance issues, it’s been a priority of Greg’s to be a good putter to make up for other deficiencies.

“Because of my disability, I’ve learned I have to have a firm base when I’m hitting,” Greg said. “When I’m putting, I can just kind of let myself be free. I’ll stand the way I need to that my balance lets me and just hit the ball. It’s not much of a thinking thing for me. It just happens.

“My irons, I have a hard time stabilizing myself. When I’m driving, I can have a firm base. My iron shots that aren’t level, I can lose my balance a little bit and don’t hit the ball as well.”

His gait issues also require him to take a cart when his playing, and his mobility issues, as well as a lack of compassion from some former classmates, means that he is cyberschooled.

“It was a mixture of both,” Greg said. “I had a hard time with kids in my grade, and switching classes made it harder. I figured stay home, do it on the computer would be a lot easier.”

Typical of Greg, there is not much complaining, except when it comes to his golf shoes.

“What he’s complained about is that we just bought him brand new golf shoes and he thinks he has too much grip now,” Lisa said. “That’s why he wears regular sneakers to play golf.

“In the beginning, you have to come to terms with things. But we try to make his life as normal as possible. Honestly, I see him as someone who walks a little bit differently.”

And whose swing, through