American golf duo ‘kick butt’ as they romp to Disabled World Cup victory

AMERICAN Kenny Bontz, who with partner Chad Pfeifer won the World Cup of Disabled Golf by a huge margin at King David Mowbray yesterday, plays off scratch and regularly takes part in state opens for able-bodies players back home in the United States.

“The other competitors look at me in my golf cart with my prosthetic leg and roll their eyes and you know they’re thinking ‘what is this guy doing here?’ And I’m like, what do want to play for dude? Because I’m going to kick your butt.”

Yes, Bontz – who lost his left leg above the knee to cancer – is a fighter second-to none. And a marvellous golfer. And on both counts so is Pfeifer, who lost his left leg on military service in Iraq when the vehicle he was driving detonated a landmine.

But, goodness, these guys can play golf.

They’re tougher now that they’ve seen adversity and overcome it. They won the World Cup, which included their individual returns over three rounds of medal play in the Canon SA Disabled Open championships earlier this week, added to their medal scores in fourball and foursomes matches yesterday.

Pfeifer won the SA Open with a fabulous 54-hole return of four-under-par 212, he combined with Bontz for a betterball 69 yesterday morning and in the afternoon foursomes – always a tricky format – they were home in 74. Their grand total was 581, 42 shots ahead of the second-placed Canadian pairing of Bob MacDermott and Josh Williams.

The South African team of Rupert Fortmann and Herman van Wyk were fifth.

“We both hit good tee-balls to set up the birdie chances, we feed off each other and Chad’s putting has been phenomenal all week,” said Bontz of his partner, who is the current World Disabled Open champion. “He only took up golf six or seven years ago after his accident and he’s got so good so quickly. He’s an inspiration to so many people and has touched the lives of a ton of people as he’s played around the world.”