Playing through the pain
Denver man, 19, is a First Tee success story
Mateo Manzanares has a couple of things in common with some of the retirees you’ll see puttering around Colorado golf courses this summer: He loves the game, and it keeps him active despite having had a total hip replacement.
The difference is that he’s only 19 and just finished his freshman year at Hampton University in Virginia.
That he was able to overcome his hip troubles and earn academic and athletic scholarships to play on the golf team there is a testament not only to his fortitude, but also to The First Tee of Denver, which provides academic programs and golf instruction for Denver youths
The First Tee helped Manzanares pursue the game when a rare disease that caused cartilage deterioration in his left hip forced him to give up bas
ketball and his first love, baseball. Now he gives back by serving as a First Tee coach and mentor.
“We try to communicate golf’s inherent core values and life skills that really help someone be successful, and we just love exposing kids to golf,” Manzanares said. “For me, as someone who excels at it and wants to keep playing, I want the game to grow as well.”
The First Tee is a local chapter of a national organization that was was created in 1997 by a partnership of the U.S. Golf Association, the PGA and LPGA tours, the PGA of America and the Masters Tournament to promote junior golf. Denver is one of its largest chapters with 8,500 kids enrolled last year.
“Being able to influence children positively is one thing I love doing,” Manzanares said. “I enjoy giving my time and helping others, but I think the way they respond gives a lot back to me. I learn to be more patient and positive, more encouraging.”
The First Tee promotes nine core values: confidence, responsibility, honesty, perseverance, courtesy, judgment, sportsmanship, integrity and respect. Manzanares’ perseverance was sorely tested by the effects of perthes disease, which caused a disruption of blood flow and deterioration in his hip that left him bone-on-bone.
Despite being diagnosed at age 6, he was good enough at baseball to play second base on teams that traveled to tournaments around the country, but he was always in pain. Doctors told him he would have to wait for a hip replacement until he stopped growing.
At age 13, he finally accepted the reality that the pain outweighed the love he had for baseball, so he began pursuing golf, taking the bus to City Park Golf Course. He began studying golf videos — he is largely selftaught — and signed up for The First Tee. There he met Nick Johnson, the director of programming for The First Tee of Denver, who quickly saw something special in Manzanares.
“He had to leave a sport that he was really good at and was really passionate about,” Johnson said. “Instead of getting down and depressed about that, he just said, ‘I’m going to do something else I can be passionate about and thrive in.’ He worked harder than anyone, and he did it with a lot of pain. He would go out and play with other kids with such a severe limp, in such bad pain,
that I’d drive out a golf cart and ask him if he wanted to drive for the rest of the round. He would always refuse. He was like, ‘No, it’s not fair to the other kids, I don’t want to be treated any different,’ even though he was at such a disadvantage playing with that much pain.”
He played high school golf at Kent Denver, then sent videos to college golf coaches seeking opportunities to play for them.
Then, in November 2016, he had his hip replacement surgery, which meant having to relearn the game with a new swing and range of motion.
Less than a year after his surgery, through The First Tee, he got the chance to play fabled Pebble Beach in California where the U.S. Open will be played this week. He was paired with Scott Mccarron, who plays with the PGA Tour Champions (formerly the Senior Tour), in the PURE Insurance Championship in September 2017.
Manzanares even got a little exposure on national TV.
“I still have dreams about it, honestly,” Manzanares said. “It was such an amazing experience and one that gave me confidence and propelled me to be able to keep playing golf at a really high level.”
Johnson said Manzanares is one of the kindest, most respectful young men he has had come through the program. Now he’s grateful to have him as a coach.
“He is the epitome of perseverance, but he’s also just a great kid,” Johnson said. “He could have taken all those things that were handed to him and been sour about it. He never has been.”