Hall of Fame next for paraplegic golfer?
Published in the Asbury Park Press 01/30/05
By STEPHEN EDELSON
STAFF WRITER

The man, a former scratch golfer who could barely break 100 since suffering a stroke, sat with his wife and cried as he watched Dennis Walters, a paraplegic, hit one perfect shot after another from the seat of his specially designed golf cart last week on a practice tee in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

"That's the kind of stuff that happens around Dennis. And it's right there, real life, happening right in front of you," said Wayne Warms, who first crossed paths with Walters 36 years ago at Manasquan River Golf Club in Brielle, when Walters was one of the most promising young golfers ever at the Shore.

The latest in what have been countless incidents just like it over the past three decades embodied the spirit of this courageous athlete. Warms, the head pro at Due Process Stable in Colts Neck, was intently studying golf's most incredible swing, as he'd done so many times before, when the kid he grew up with in Neptune changed someone's life in an instant.

"The guy sat next to me and said, "It's the most incredible thing I've ever seen. I've been sitting around feeling sorry for myself, but not anymore,' " Warms noted.

Since a golf cart overturned on him in 1974, ending his playing career, Walters has emerged as the sport's most inspirational ambassador. Over the years, the "Dennis Walters Golf Show" has traveled the country, with Walters displaying his awesome ability as a trick-shot artist, while dispensing life lessons that draw upon his own story of perseverance in the face of overwhelming odds.

Now, there's a grassroots movement to recognize his accomplishments by having Walters inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame in St. Augustine, Fla.

Walters was nominated by none other than Gary Player, who first met Walters when they were paired together in a tournament in South Africa in the early 1970s. And in Walters' file with the Hall of Fame's Board of Governors are letters of support from Jack Nicklaus, Arnold Palmer and Tiger Woods, who uses Walters as his opening act at Tiger Woods Foundation clinics. And it's not just a who's who of golf supporting his induction, but a wide slice of Americana, including former presidents Gerald Ford and George Bush.

Each year, the Hall of Fame class includes a former PGA and LPGA Tour player, along with a distinguished amateur. Then there's a fourth category for lifetime achievement in regards to outstanding service to the game and accomplishments during a career in golf. And while there are many qualified candidates, none are more deserving than the 55-year-old Walters.

Former New York Yankees pitcher Ralph Terry doesn't get particularly emotional when he talks about giving up the game-winning home run to Bill Mazeroski in the ninth inning of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series, or winning the Series MVP two years later for the Yankees after shutting out the San Francisco Giants in Game 7. But he does when he talks about Walters.

They first met when Walters was out-driving him by 20 yards when they were paired together at the 1968 New Jersey Open at Plainfield, and the two have remained close friends ever since. Terry was one of the owners of Roxiticus Golf Club in Mendham, and was first on the scene when Walters' golf cart overturned on a steep slope near the 16th green on July 21, 1974, leaving him paralyzed from the waist down.

"I played with Roger Maris," Terry said. "This guy worked his way up from the bottom straight and honest, with hard work, fair and square, with none of the drugs they're using today. He should have waltzed into the Hall of Fame for breaking Babe Ruth's record and holding it for 37 years. Instead, they hung an asterisk on him. I'd hate to see that happen to Dennis, because even with his disability he's worked hard and ended up touching as many people as the great players.

"I've heard this saying lot of times: "In life, it's not what you achieve, but what you overcome.' He epitomizes that. To have something taken away from you in the prime of your life and accomplish what he has is incredible."

By all accounts, Walters was on a career path pointed toward walking fairways alongside the finest players in the world. He finished 10th at the 1969 U.S. Amateur Championship, was a runner-up in the 1972 New Jersey Open, losing to Art Silvestrone Sr. in a playoff, and had played professionally abroad after graduating from North Texas State. He was a 24-year-old preparing to head for PGA Tour qualifying school when his world was changed forever.

But instead of feeling sorry for himself, Walters emerged from an initial period of depression and willed himself back onto the golf course, defying the doctors who told him he'd never play again.

"Thirty years ago, playing golf with a disability wasn't an option," Warms said. "He was a pioneer. He inspired a whole generation of people to overcome their handicaps, and that needs to be recognized. What he had to do overcome his paralysis, he had to invent a new way of how to swing a golf club. That took a lot of time and effort, and now you see every golf cart company has designed carts for physically challenged people, and that's an outcrop of what Dennis did.

"He's inspired so many people to reach for their dreams. In a lot of ways, nobody who has ever played golf has done what he's done."

Not only has Walters developed into one of the world's preeminent trick-shot artists, employing a dizzying array of shots using multi-head clubs and super-sized tees, he's the consummate showman. With his canine sidekick Benji Hogan serving as part of the act, he gives more than 100 shows annually across the country, tailoring his motivational message for everything from junior clinics to corporate retreats.

"Think about it? Dennis' dream was always to be able to perform in golf in front of large numbers of people and demonstrate his skills," said Dr. Gary Wiren, a long-time friend who annually ranks among the country's top instructors.

"Something happened along the way and he has still succeeded in his dream. He's a world-famous performer, it just came out different than he thought. The difference is it took a hell of a lot more guts to do it this way than the way he planned. When things go badly, it's easy to quit. But he never gave up on his dream."

And it's not simply his show that Walters uses to inspire others. It's the simple dignity with which he carries himself on a daily basis in the face of prejudices against those with physical limitations.

"Having watched Dennis since I was born, he never gives up on anything," said Walters' niece, Brodie Gold, a 27-year-old attorney from Freehold. "If there's something he really wants to do, he never gives up on it no matter what happens. When something comes up in my life that seems too hard, I think of Dennis. He's proof that if you want something badly enough you can do it.

"My grandfather's motto was the he didn't know how to spell the word can't. Can't was a four-letter word in our family. That's how Dennis was brought up and that was passed down to me."

Walters would never make it into the World Golf Hall of Fame based on his playing record. That opportunity was taken from him more than 30 years ago. But the path he's taken since then has been as stirring as Ben Hogan's comeback from a near-fatal car crash to win the 1950 U.S. Open. Now, it's time for Walters to be recognized alongside Hogan and the sport's greatest players.