Golfer shoots one-armed ace in wheelchair
McCreedy, 64, staying active
For golfers of all ages, scoring a holein-one is the pinnacle — an unlikely combination of some skill, the right conditions and a lucky streak.
So imagine 64-year-old Garth McCreedy’s astonishment when he scored an ace Tuesday at Chilliwack’s Kinkora Golf Course.
For a young, athletic, able-bodied golfer, the chances of scoring a hole-in-one fall somewhere between implausible and impossible.
So imagine the odds of McCreedy scoring an ace — he’s a wheelchairbound paraplegic, who golfs with just one arm.
“It happened Tuesday about 3:30 in the afternoon,” a still-glowing McCreedy told The Province.
“No. 14 is 141 yards long, and I’m usually four or five yards short, but the fairways are hard and I got a couple of extra bounces.”
But McCreedy and playing partner Ken Bennett didn’t think anything special after McCreedy laid everything he’s got into his swing — wielding custom clubs and sitting in a wheelchair customized with a ‘free wheel,’ so he can manage the terrain without getting dumped.
“My kids joke that it’s not a game of golf until you dump dad a couple of times,” joked McCreedy, a still-active middle-ager who works at the local Home Depot when he’s not wheeling around Kinkora.
The 14th hole is what they call in the golf biz an ‘elevated green’ — essentially you’re shooting blind and can’t see the actual hole.
“Ken and I went up to the green and we couldn’t see my ball,” said McCreedy. “I thought it probably rolled off the back.”
So they toured around the edge of the green, no ball in sight, and then looked under a large tree where golf balls often hide.
“The last place we looked was in the hole, and, son of a gun, there was my ball,” laughed McCreedy. “I couldn’t believe it.” The fact that the wheelchair-bound McCreedy can even make it out to play is a bit of a miracle in itself.
“I’ve heard about other people, but I’ve never actually met anyone,” said McCreedy.
“We put the free wheel on the wheelchair, and Ross Beebe from Chimo Golf made me these custom clubs. They’re shorter than regular clubs, because I’m sitting down and I’m closer to the ball. And the angle between the clubhead and the shaft is about 50-degrees different, because I’m so low.”
Injured when a tree fell on him, McCreedy is now a member at Kinkora — and now a bit of a celebrity.
“It’s better than sitting on the couch at home,” he said. “I was looking for a game that I could play with my wife and kids, and this is it.”
And, maybe now, he can start giving lessons on how to fire a hole-in-one.