Images: Keith Allison is in Savannah and snapped several photos of Ken Green during practice on Wednesday.
KEN GREEN HAS BEEN RESOLUTE about returning to golf. This will be the week. On Friday Green will be the first amputee to compete in a Champions Tour event when he tees it up at the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf in Savannah, Georgia.
The man has been through hell. Last June a right-front tire on Green’s RV blew out on a Mississippi interstate highway. Green and passengers tumbled down an embankment and struck a large oak tree, killing everyone except Green—his brother, his girl friend and his dog, a German Shepard that Green once rescued from an alligator attack in Florida. Not long after the former PGA Tour player lost his right leg below the knee and was fitted with a prosthetic limb. Green vowed that he would return to golf one day.
Then tragedy struck again in January when Green’s 21-year-old son was found dead in a dorm room at Southern Methodist University. An autopsy later revealed that a combination of alcohol and prescription drugs was the cause of death.“It’s been a journey,” Ken said today at PGATour.com. “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.”
Green, who will team with Mike Reid, added he will feel “absolutely petrified” about hitting that first tee shot. Who knows where it will go or how he’ll play. He’ll care because he’s still a pro and he still remembers how to play even if his body, minus one good leg, has forgotten. But others will just be glad to see him out there. Ken Green is back.
−The Armchair Golfer
