Just saw this article, and thought it was worthy of posting! AM hopeful that this Golf Club continues to use its facilities for Veterans causes.
Patriot game: Patriot Cup pairs pros, war veterans in military salute
By JIMMIE TRAMEL World Sports Writer
Published: 6/1/2010 2:21 AM Last Modified: 6/1/2010 4:34 AM
OWASSO — Tank platoon commander Denis Oliverio, a first lieutenant of the U.S. Marine Corps, was engaged in a firefight with insurgents who wanted to sabotage elections in Iraq. That's when a bullet blazed through his left arm.
"Clean entry, rough exit," he said. "It shattered the humerus into five pieces. It severed the artery. It severed the nerve. It damn near took my arm off."
That was 14 surgeries ago.
Doctors wired and rewired the innards of his arm and hand in an attempt to restore normal function.
When your brain orders your thumb to bend toward the hand, it happens. Oliverio has to trick his brain to make the thumb on his left hand bend. Don't ask for details. That will only make your head hurt.
Oliverio jokes that he will have to skip numbers when using fingers to teach his 3-year-old how to count. Why? He can't move fingers on his left hand without all of them moving in unison. He also lost feeling in some fingers.
But there he was playing golf Monday in the inaugural Patriot Cup at Patriot Golf Club, striking the ball better than people who don't have visible gunshot wounds.
"I'm lucky to be here," Oliverio said. "I'm lucky to be alive. I'm lucky to have an arm. And, ultimately, I'm lucky to be playing golf."
The Patriot Cup was billed as a pro-am, but really it's pro military.
Pro golfers — among them: Hunter Mahan, Rickie Fowler, Loren Roberts and Mark O'Meara — from all over the U.S. flocked to the new course for the Memorial Day tournament and no one wanted an appearance fee, according to Patriot Golf Club founder Dan Rooney. All they wanted was a chance to be a part of a red, white and blue cause.
The Patriot Golf Club is partnered with the Folds of Honor Foundation, which raises scholarship money for the families of military members killed or disabled in service to their country.
Fowler wanted to find worthy charities after turning pro. This was a no-brainer. Mahan, the son of an ex-Navy man, is such a big supporter that he donated hefty checks after Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup appearances.
Rooney recruited them and other pros to play with amateurs and soldiers in the Patriot Cup, a grand opening event for the course. It was such an easy sell that when Rooney talked to Bo Van Pelt and Scott Simpson, they said they would come and bring as many peers as possible.
Rooney said he was "absolutely blown away" by the turnout. Simpson indicated it was easy to jump on this bandwagon and he expects the event to get bigger.
"How can you not want to help families of service people who are injured or killed?" he said, adding that it's an honor to be a small part of the mission of the Folds of Honor Foundation.
Van Pelt said he hits a little white ball for a living. He's aware that more significant work is being done by soldiers who put their lives on the line every day, but he said we take them for granted.
"It's easy to get caught up in day-to-day life," he said. "But we need to remember that freedom comes with a price and there are a lot of people out there paying that for us and anything we can do to give back, I think it's our responsibility to do that."
The price of freedom was visible at the Patriot Cup. Disabled veterans used canes and prosthetic limbs to navigate the grounds.
"How they handle everything, it's just great," former U.S. Amateur champ Colt Knost said after being wowed by an ultra-positive amputee named Major Ed.
"It's just nice to give back and hang out with these guys for a couple of days and just see what they are going through and hear their stories. It just really makes me realize how lucky I am to do what I do."
The price of freedom for Oliverio, a Purple Heart recipient who was thrice deployed to the Middle East, is the dysfunctional left hand. He said golf is good therapy for the hand. Monday was good therapy, period.
"You have got all kinds of people here who normally wouldn't hang out together on a daily basis," Oliverio said. "But today we are all the same. We are all saluting those who have gone before us and paved the way for our freedom and we appreciate that to no end, so it's an incredible day."
http://www.tulsaworld.com/sportsextr...1_ArmySg258469
Pictured Below:
Army Sgt. Derrick Ford (from left), Army Maj. Ed Pulido and First Lt. Denis Oliverio of the Marine Corps watch as Army First Lt. Brian Donarsky gets a hug from Dan Rooney during the opening ceremony at Patriot Golf Club in Owasso on Monday. TOM GILBERT / Tulsa World
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