Walsh worked with PGA professional Mark
Guttenberg at Bull Run Golf Club to revamp
his swing after the accident.
accident. I was down to an eight (handicap).
I was pretty much an addict about golf.”
A native of Dublin, Ireland, Walsh was
a highly-decorated professional steeplechase rider in Europe who had competed
in the prestigious Grand National in Aintree, England, in 1982. He won many big
races in America after he moved here full
time in 1985. He and Haley, who worked
with racehorses and hunters, met when
both were living in Unionville, Pa., at farms
across the street from each other. They
married in 1990 and he eventually retired
from the racing circuit in 1999 and began
a career as a farm manager in Middleburg,
while also fox hunting and playing golf for
pure pleasure.
life, and this guy is as tough as a two-dollar
steak,” said Wayne VanSant, a single-digit
handicapper himself and occasional Walsh
golfing partner. “He’s also a superior athlete. If he’s going to play golf, believe me he’s
going to figure it out.”
And so far he has.
When he returned home after Easter,
Walsh continued the rehabilitation process with Middleburg physical therapist
Del Wilson, an avid golfer himself. In one
“I’ve known a lot of tough guys in my life, and
this guy is as tough as a two-dollar steak.”
BIGSTOCK.COM; CHRIS JOHN
— WAYNE VANSANT
After the accident, both those passions
surely would have to be things of the past.
The broken neck had been repaired without
leading to full paralysis, but the nerves in
that area had been detached and could not
be fixed, leaving him without the use of his
right arm.
Ride horses and play golf again?
Not likely.
To most everyone except Peter Walsh.
“I’ve known a lot of tough guys in my
vsga.org
of his first sessions, Wilson handed Walsh
a putter and put down one of those plastic
gizmos that shoots the ball back if it goes
in the cup.
“I kept knocking them in one-handed,”
Walsh said. “Del couldn’t believe it.”
Wilson had another idea. He had taken
some lessons from PGA professional Mark
Guttenberg, who lives in nearby Aldie, Va.,
and is now director of golf instruction at
the Raspberry Golf School at VSGA mem-
ber club Bull Run Golf Club in Haymarket.
Wilson knew that Guttenberg had some
experience working with disabled golfers,
particularly amputee military veterans, and
recommended that Walsh seek him out to
see if he could help him start playing again.
“Del called me and said ‘I have a patient
of mine I’d like you to see.’” Guttenberg
recalled. “He said ‘he needs something to
grab on to. He used to play golf and I think
you can get him motivated to play golf
again.’ He came over to Bull Run and we
started working with him.”
The first step was to change Walsh’s
equipment. He’d been playing with an old
set of steel-shafted clubs, and Guttenberg
advised switching to much lighter graphite
Taylor Made models that would be far easier to swing and allow him to generate more
clubhead speed. Because his right arm was
simply dead weight, Walsh and Guttenberg manufactured a swing emphasizing
keeping his left arm straight and moving
it further away from his body to create a
bigger arc before impact.
“He really started getting his enthusiasm for the game back,” Guttenberg said.
“He was very, very open to instruction.
He looked at me as an expert in my field.
He wasn’t stubborn at all and very easy to
teach, and he could see the results right
away. Now, he can hit it at least 150 yards
off the tee, and he’s back playing again.
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