ARTICLE: “Dennis Walters never stopped dreaming despite setback”

“Dennis Walters never stopped dreaming despite setback”
By Bobby Greenwood, PGA
Published by http://www.teetimesgolfnews.com, December 20, 2023

The great Dennis Walters was well on his way.

As a young amateur golfer, Dennis won several New Jersey State Junior Championships. As he continued to improve his game and win events, his confidence also improved with every win. Realizing the need for year-round golfing conditions and a competitive atmosphere, Dennis chose to attend North Texas State University (my ole alma mater) in Denton, Texas on a golf scholarship. This is one of the many reasons that he and I became close friends.

Dennis went on to play for North Texas University from 1967-71, and led his team to the Missouri Valley Conference Championship each of those years. Dennis also finished 11th in the U.S. Amateur Championship in 1971.

Walters began his professional career in 1971 after graduating from North Texas. To sharpen his skills, he began playing the South African Tour. Dennis spent 1973 competing on the South African tour and in mini-tour events in the United States. Over the next two years his quest for knowledge took him around the country, to Canada, and even overseas. His game and his confidence improving, Dennis was a rising star and a good bet to finally fulfill his lifelong dream and join the PGA tour in 1974.

Shortly before the 1974 Tour Qualifying Event, Dennis went home to Neptune, New Jersey for a visit and to play a few friendly rounds of golf. Back home in New Jersey on July 21, 1974, Walters went out to Roxiticus Golf Club to see his friend, former Major League pitcher, Ralph Terry. Going on a steep downhill path in a three-wheeler cart, the brakes failed; Walters lost control and he was thrown from the cart and suffered severe spinal cord damage. When he went to get up, he couldn’t. After several weeks in hospitals, the verdict was final: Dennis had walked his last 18 holes.

“‘I was so bewildered and so down and so low, I didn’t know what to do,’ Walters told Golf Channel. ‘I came home to my mom and dad on the weekends, and I was sitting there in 1975 watching the Bing Crosby tournament on television. A lot of these guys I played with in college were playing in it,’ (including Bobby Greenwood).

‘So, I’m crying my eyes out and Dad says, ‘Come on Champ, let’s go hit some golf balls.’ And I said, ‘Come on, man. How do you reckon I’m going to do that?’ And he goes, ‘Out of your [expletive] wheelchair.’ I was hitting balls from a wheelchair, and I was starting to get them airborne, but I had no way to get around the golf course. One day while sitting on a bar stool, I struck upon the idea that would enable me to play the game I love. We cut the legs off the bar stool and mounted it on a golf cart. I now had a way to get around a golf course.’

From the first ball he hit into a net in his parents’ house, Walters knew that he had to find a way to continue playing the game he loved. The New Jersey and Florida golf communities rallied around him, raising money for specialized equipment including a swivel seat for his wheelchair. A year later, he paid them back with some shows of how well he could still hit the ball. For the last one, he added a twist: a trick shot off a three-foot tee. The crowd roared.

Suddenly, Walters had a new path in golf. The Dennis Walters Golf Show turned into his life’s work. ‘I never thought I could really make a career out of this,’ he said. ‘I was just trying to cope with what I thought to be a hopeless situation. As rotten as I felt every place else, I felt good when I was at the golf course. For me, it was good therapy. Good mental therapy, good physical therapy.’

Dennis has always said this, “To me a real dream is having a positive thought in your head and in your heart, and doing whatever it takes to make that come true. If you have a dream and it doesn’t work out, never stop dreaming. Get a new dream!”

In 1977, I invited Dennis to perform his golf show for my members at Sawgrass Country Club where I was serving as the Director of Golf. My members were absolutely amazed by his ability to hit precision golf shots. His accuracy was uncanny whether he was hitting conventional golf shots or the many trick shots he has in his repertoire. And remember, all this was accomplished by a person who only has the use of his upper body.

This helped me in my teaching with my club members as I tried to play down the then popular theory of “hitting the ball with your lower body’ which was so popular during the 1970s. And, my junior and senior golf members at Sawgrass seemed to derive a special benefit from watching the show.

Juniors see the positive example Dennis sets by showing them no matter how large an obstacle may be, it can be overcome with a little ingenuity and a lot of hard work. I was giving a lot of lessons at Sawgrass and I also noticed that my senior golfers who may be on the verge of giving up the game due to minor aches and pains seldom complained after they’ve seen Dennis perform.

[EXCERPT from DennisWalters.com online page:
“Woven throughout the show is Dennis’s powerful motivating message that dreams can come true for with hard work and perseverance, anything is possible. The show then concludes with his famous rapid-fire machine gun shot where he hits 5 consecutive shots while they roll down a ramp, the last one being a special exploding ball.”

Several years ago, I saw Dennis and his dad during the PGA Merchandise Show in Orlando and I was happy to see Dennis looking so good. Always positive, Dennis demonstrates this to its highest level; he motivates and inspires all of us who have seen him perform.

He became friends with Ben Hogan, told dirty jokes with Sam Snead, and performed in more than 30 clinics with Tiger Woods. When it came time for putting his case in front of the World Golf Hall of Fame’s Selection Commission, none other than Jack Nicklaus and Gary Player took up the cause.

On Oct. 8, 2018, Walters got a phone call from Nicklaus and Player, informing him that he had been elected to the World Golf Hall of Fame, in part because of their advocacy for him.

“I was going, whoa, if these two guys think I should be in and they were pulling for me, then I really feel like I belong,” he told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “It is some journey, from laying paralyzed in a hospital bed 45 years ago to the World Golf Hall of Fame, if this were a movie, you would say it is fiction because you couldn’t make it up.’”

According to his web page, Dennis is one of only 11 honorary lifetime members of The PGA of America.

In 2008, The PGA of America presented him with their highest honor, The Distinguished Service Award. Previous winners included Arnold Palmer, Jack Nicklaus, Byron Nelson, and Gene Sarazen. And, the USGA bestowed its highest honor, the Bob Jones Award, on Dennis Walters at a ceremony on June 13, 2018, one of the highlights of U.S. Open Championship week at the Shinnecock Hills Golf Club in Southampton, N.Y.
The world-renowned trick shot artist and paraplegic golfer has performed more than 3,000 trick shot golf shows in all 50 states. He estimates he has traveled in excess of 3 million miles performing.

I talked with Dennis on the phone in late September. He now resides in Jupiter, FL. I could hear his loyal service dog. Gussie barking in the background. Both Dennis and Gussie sounded great as usual.

Source: https://www.teetimesgolfnews.com/announcements/walters-never-stopped-dreaming-despite-setback/article_7a5912be-9f5d-11ee-82e7-7f42de7e1465.html

BOBBY GREENWOOD, PGA
Former PGA Tour Player
Tennessee Golf Hall of Fame
PGA of America Life Member
Official Website: http://www.greenwoodpga.net/
Official Blog: https://greenwoodpga.wordpress.com/
Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/greenwoodpga