Manuel de los Santos, a man who should be an inspiration to us all.

He began as a promising young baseball player out of the Dominican Republic with hopes of fame and riches playing the sport professionally. After a terrible accident where he was struck by a car while on his motorcycle, those hopes quickly ended. He awoke from a coma four days later to find that his left leg had been amputated above the knee.

After the accident, he moved to Paris where he encountered the movie “The Legend of Bagger Vance” and found his new inspiration. The next day he was at the local driving range and he hasn’t looked back since. The owners of the range were so impressed with his swing, they allowed him to hit as many balls as he wanted, free of charge.  He did just that, in his earliest days, he was spending the entire day at the range, hitting 2,000 golf balls  day. Four years later, he maintains a three handicap and has won many international events for disabled golfers in Spain, Italy, Sweden and Germany, and he is particularly proud of winning the 2008 Swedish Invitational in Malmo, the unofficial disabled golfers world championship.

What’s most impressive is that he plays the sport without the aid of a prosthetic leg. He travels from shot to shot with the aid of crutches, but hits the ball standing on one leg. He hits it straight and long, driving the ball 260 to 300 yards. He says he does 100 crunches a day to help maintain the core strength.

I can’t begin to imagine the balance it must take to play the sport on one leg and it’s beyond impressive that Manuel not only plays the game, but maintains a three handicap.

Earlier this month he played in the pro-am out at the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. He and his playing partner Richard Bland placed 22nd.

I hope to see more about Manuel de los Santos as he plays in more and more competitions, I think he should be an inspiration and a gut-check to all of us who enjoy the sport. If this guy can play a three handi game and walk the entire time on one leg, there’s no reason those those able-bodied golfers can’t do the same. He refuses to use a cart or a prosthetic, so perhaps the next time we’re feeling a little lazy and don’t want to walk 18, we should think about Manuel and his admirable defiance of the fates. 🙂

Here’s a list of Walker Friendly Golf Courses in Orlando