In Golf , Underwood Found HOPE
What Matt Underwood witnessed just south of Kabul ,
Afghanistan , in 2007 was devastating . What he saw in his dreams for years thereafter was worse .
A Navy man who found himself assigned to advise and help train an Afghan army , Underwood watched helplessly as two children stepped on a well-camouflaged landmine .
The incident sent him cascading emotionally and into counseling . But he hid the type of information that would have allowed doctors to make an informed diagnosis . He played golf , but says he was more obsessed with the 19th hole than the first 18 .
The drinking raged on , through a misguided reenlistment born of a self-imposed need to keep a commitment and to prove to himself that he wasn ’ t weak . He was just fooling himself . He frequently dreamed of those Afghan children , though it wasn ’ t their faces he saw looking down too late . The faces he saw belonged to his son , his daughter .
In September 2016 , Underwood spent much of one day planning to kill himself . But driving through Northern Virginia , he suddenly pulled into the Fort Belvoir
“ It ’ s a sense of camaraderie again . You ’ re engaging with fellow veterans who speak the same language , maybe come from a similar background and have a similar outlook on life .”
— Matt Underwood
Golf Club , where he hit balls and hit balls and hit more balls — too many to count and for too many hours to calculate .
Eventually , he got honest with himself and everyone , confessed his drinking , and was diagnosed with PTSD , bipolar disorder , and obsessive-compulsive disorder .
He began attending clinics put on by the Military Golf Association , which led the personable 43-year-old Chesapeake resident to the program he now serves as an ambassador : PGA HOPE , short for Helping Our Patriots Everywhere .
In partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs , PGA HOPE helps introduce golf to veterans with disabilities employing a six to eight-week curriculum taught by PGA professionals trained in adaptive golf . At present , there are 132 programs across the country , taught by 350 PGA pros .
There are just two in Virginia — at the First Tee of Greater Richmond and at the Aeropines courses at Naval Air Station Oceana in Virginia Beach . But plans are underway to expand the offerings in Southeast Virginia . About 50 Hampton Roads veterans have been helped thus far .
One doesn ’ t just walk into a position as PGA HOPE ambassador . After attending two clinics at Congressional Country Club in Maryland , Underwood was invited to a weeklong training program . He was instructed in how to interact with veterans dealing with mental health issues which , as he said , “ we were all pretty much experiencing or were familiar with . But we ’ d never been the intervener .”
There were also lessons in public speaking and some golf instruction , followed by participation in a fundraising tournament .
Although golf is the axis on which the program revolves , becoming a better player is a small part of the aim .
“ You can be as competitive as you want to be , or you can just hang out , have a good time , hit some balls ,” Underwood said . “ It ’ s a sense of camaraderie again . You ’ re engaging with fellow veterans who speak the same language , maybe come from a similar background and have a similar outlook on life .”
Loss of control is something PTSD sufferers feel most acutely , Underwood said . If you ’ ve spent years in a hostile environment and seen the destruction caused by an improvised explosive device hidden on a roadside , your mind can become conditioned to react emotionally to seeing a cardboard box or a piece of trash in the road once you ’ re home .
As maddening as the game can be , Underwood theorized that swinging a golf club is actually therapeutic in a veteran ’ s quest to restore some order in his or her life .
“ When I ’ m swinging a golf club the outcome of that shot is entirely on me ,” he said . “ There ’ s no one else involved in that action . It gives you something to work towards , gives you something that you can control . For me , it gave me the ability to start with the physical ( recovery ), and control the physical , then work back to the emotional and the cognitive issues .”
For Underwood , PGA HOPE was true to its name . As an ambassador , he ’ s committed to offering hope — PGA style — to his fellow veterans .
COURTESY MATT UNDERWOOD
72 V IRGINIA G OLFER | J ANUARY / F EBRUARY 2021
vsga . org