GRAND BLANC TWP., MI – McLaren Health Care and the U.S. Adaptive Golf Alliance continue to make progress in their efforts to make golf more inclusive for people with disabilities.

During the third annual McLaren Adaptive Golf Clinic at Warwick Hills Golf & Country Club in Grand Blanc Township on Monday, August 19, adaptive golf coaches worked with area adaptive golfers with varying disabilities on putting, chipping and full swings.

The seminar was the first event of the Ally Challenge, an official event of the PGA TOUR Champions golf tour that runs through Sunday, August 25. Funds raised for the Ally Challenge will be donated to charities in southeast Michigan.

At the opening of the course, Laurie Prochazka, vice president of community partnerships at McLaren Health Care, spoke to participants and told them that the golf course was “one of the biggest highlights” of the Ally Challenge.

Related: Golfers with disabilities find their rhythm in the adaptive golf clinic

“This year’s event is bigger and better than ever,” she said. “We have 43 participants. We have 11 certified adaptive golf coaches and we have an additional lesson on the range.”

“This event really highlights the inclusive nature of golf and we are thrilled to have you all here with us today as we celebrate and have a great time here on the driving range.”

One of the course’s coaches was Tracy Ramin, who also serves as competition chair for the US Adaptive Golf Alliance.

Ramin thanked McLaren Health Care and those whose donations helped make the clinic possible.

He said events like this “create amazing awareness” and provide new opportunities for adaptive golfers.

“That’s always our big goal, to inspire that new person,” Ramin said. “Sometimes adaptable people get written off, and that’s not acceptable.”

Ramin, like most of the clinic’s trainers, is an adaptive golfer himself.

He said he has been an amputee for about half his life. Ramin lost his leg when he was hit by a truck while trying to rescue a ladder that had fallen from his construction truck.

“He hit me at 80 miles per hour while he was holding a ladder. I was thrown 100 yards, ripped out the bones in my leg, ruined my shoulder, broke my other knee and broke my jaw,” Ramin said.

In the moments following the accident, he had only a two percent chance of survival.

“Every day is a good day,” said Ramin.

Ramin started playing golf at around the age of 13 and remained involved in the sport for around 40 years, competing professionally for most of that time.

“I played for at least 10 years before I got injured, and then I played very intensively in the adaptive field for the last 26 years,” Ramin said.

After competing in a Paralympic event in 2013, Ramin began collaborating with other players in the adaptive golf field and founded the US Adaptive Golf Alliance.

He said he wondered why golf was not included in the events.

“We were at a long drive competition in Las Vegas and we all got together and decided to create something bigger and unified,” said Ramin. “We want to be strong together and that’s how the US Adaptive Golf Alliance was born.”

When the US Adaptive Golf Alliance was founded in 2014, it only worked with about 10 different organizations. Today, it partners with about 50 organizations, including several state golf associations that the group supports in organizing their own adaptive golf events or competitions.

Ramin noted that the US Adaptive Golf Alliance hosts about 40 different tournaments.

“We are all over the country,” he said.

Anyone interested in getting involved with the US Adaptive Golf Alliance or making a donation to support future US Adaptive Golf Alliance events can visit the group’s website at usaga.org.

“We need support for this clinic and sponsors every year,” said Ramin.

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