You’ve likely heard of Ken Green’s cruel twist of fate by now. A blown tire, a tree and the resulting loss of girlfriend, brother, limb and even his dog.
Since then Green has been battling – initially to survive, then to keep his right leg (a fight he lost) and most recently to make his way home for a benefit golf tournament held this coming Monday in Danbury, Connecticut.
In these days when golfers bemoan the length of their season, or have tifts over whether they should/should not play in an event, you wish that Poulter, Villegas and a handful of other players would be forced to tee it up Monday in Danbury after looking Ken Green in the eye and saying ‘I’m sorry for being such an unappreciative boob.’ Or maybe that the winner of the cool $10 million from this weekend would toss a few hundred grand Green’s way.
But of course Villegas and Poulter will not be there and its unlikely a big check will be coming to Green from the FedEx Cup winner. However others like Fred Funk, Bob Tway and Mark Calcavecchia are stepping up to support Green and we give a NiceBallz saaaaluuuute to them.
If you’re ever feeling down about a round, or that you’re not able to ‘carve’ that 7 iron quite like Tiger or generally want to whine like a real touring pro – do yourself a favor and bookmark Ken Green’s blog and give it a read. It’ll straighten you out quick.
Best of luck to Green in his return, not just to golf, but life. He’s made a remarkable journey back this far already and it seems likely he has the grit and heart to go further.
Be good KG, and swing harder.
Hack is a pen name for a marketing and media relations professional who enjoys blogging as a means to pursue his passion for his favorite sport – golf. He represents the yin to his collaborator’s yang. He doesn’t so much play golf, as the game plays him to his delight and likely demise. Follow his perspective on Twitter at @
Great post Hack. Chiming in here – reading Ken Green’s blog is a sobering experience. We should all take a moment and realize that most of the problems we bitch about could be a lot worse. I’m a pretty big Ken Green fan and have been since my days living in Fairfield, CT (‘76-’92) – KG was a bit of a legend there back then in the early to mid 80’s, I think he still holds the course record at Richter Park in Danbury. Brash, fearless and a hell of a player – so I heard from some folks who saw him play before he made it to the PGA Tour.
If the past is any indication, with his attitude and love for the game of golf I really think he can make it back to play on the Champions Tour. It was amazing to read (in this Golf Digest article: http://tinyurl.com/n7xwxh) that his determination to play competitive golf again had him tell his doctor to cut the leg off rather than save it and not have a chance to play at the pro level again.
Good luck KG, you have a lot of people rooting for you – especially me.
At the time, the Mississippi State Police reported that Ken Green had been driving the RV and there were other such reports. Given his admitted past driving abuses ( http://www.golfdigest.com/magazine/2009/10/ken_green_mastersdiary1989 ) and what a party animal he was, there may have been reason to look a closer at the accident.
That being said, I hope he makes a full recovery mentally and is able to walk. I also hope he never wears those green shoes.
Hoorah Kenny…
Unless there were some clear allegation or proof of booze being involved (of which I’ve yet to see anything saying such) I think it’s essentially irrelevant who was driving. It was an accident and anyone who has lost a loved one in an accident knows they defy logic. And blame doesn’t help ease the pain any either.