PHOENIX — No matter the swing, EG Scheetz isn't finding discouragement in his first go at golf.
"The harder the funner," Scheetz said.
After any missed swing, Scheetz swings the club back over his right shoulder and swings again.
Upon making contact with the golf ball, Scheetz quickly shouts, "I did it!"
"It's so special, especially because he's so happy with being able to play sports just like a normal kid," said Rachel Scheetz, EG's mom.
EG uses a wheelchair due to spina bifida. He was among several kids with disabilities at Papago Golf Club at a clinic put together by Ability360 and the 26th AJGA Thunderbird Heather Farr Classic junior golf tournament.
"I think, you know, it's tough for some of these disabled juniors as well they feel like they can't have access to the game and so that's really kind of what we're trying to bring is to let them know, 'Hey, you can golf too,'" said Hall Upshaw, tournament director for the American Junior Golf Association.
Tim Surry runs Ability360's golf and curling programs and said specialized carts allow people who use a wheelchair or who have other mobility issues to stand and still golf.
"I want to make Arizona the number one destination for adaptive golf," Surry said.
Still, Surry would like to see the carts more available in Arizona to help make golf more widely accessible.
"These courses, not all of them, but a lot of them, do not have the equipment, the golf carts, for somebody to get out and do that. So that's what I would really like to see - just everybody being able to go out and play," Surry said.
The specialized cart helped Kaitlyn Andre adapt the game to try taking swings.
"I always wanted to try it," Andre said. "My brother and my dad did."
The goal was to meet all kids at their abilities, including Lex Damaree.
"She's tried golfing in the past, and it's been challenging, you know, being one of many in a class, and then she's got sensory issues, and so it's just really hard for her to keep up," said Kinh Demaree, Lex's mother. "And so this has been awesome, where she has more individualized attention."
UP TO SPEED