Want to upset your friends? Beat them in golf with one leg.

James Lawson quickly discovered how angry people get when he one-ups them on the golf course.

“It’s funny,” the amputee said. “You’d never mean to be offensive to your friends. But beating them with one leg is offensive. They take it serious, man.”

On Saturday and Sunday at Seneca Golf Course in Broadview Heights, Ohio, Lawson will be one of 23 golfers with a disability playing in the inaugural Ohio Adaptive Open Championship. The 36-hole event features golfers from 12 states and two countries (United States and Sweden). It’s a joint venture between the Northern Ohio Golf Association, which absorbed the Toledo District Golf Association, and Cleveland Metroparks.

Participants must be 18 years old and meet one of the categories of impairment to be eligible for adaptive golf: impaired muscle power, impaired passive range of movement, limb deficiency, leg length difference, short stature, hypertonia, ataxia, athetosis, vision impairment, or intellectual impairment.

“Everybody has a dream in life,” said Robb Schulze, CEO of NOGA. “In the disabled community, somebody woke up one morning and life was different. But it didn’t mean life had to stop. Events like this — and not just golf but other sports, as well — give everybody something to get out of bed and work toward and have fun and be able to grow as an individual.”

The idea was hatched when Schulze and several other NOGA stakeholders, including Ottawa Hills native Jerry Lemieux, a USGA rules official, were at the first U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst last summer.

The USGA’s newest event consisted of 96 players in 2022, ranging from as young as 16 to as old as 80. Their on-course capabilities were just as wide, from plus-handicaps to 20s. The tournament was a rousing success, in terms of breaking barriers and growing an underrepresented population.

“When we left, before even got outside the Pinehurst city limits, everybody in the car said, ‘We have to do this in Ohio,’” Schulze said.

The impact was felt by everyone on the grounds — players, family members, spectators, and even rules officials.

“I’ve worked a million of these things, and it’s the most humbling and inspirational experience you’ll ever have,” Lemieux said. “Go to all the U.S. Opens and Ryder Cups you want to, but if you haven’t been to this, you’re missing something. This is just an experience you can’t believe. And this is not a clambake, people are competing very seriously. You have double amputees, people born with arms that are six inches, seated players with no use of their lower extremities.”

What was taking place on the golf course was so uplifting that Lemieux said rulings would be made with tears in their eyes.

“Every sports fan ought to watch this just once,” he added.

Among the highlights this year was Max Togisala, a seated player, who shot a 2-under-par 70 on Pinehurst No. 6.

Originally, the Ohio Adaptive Open wasn’t supposed to begin until 2024. But the response was so overwhelming that NOGA decided to move forward with the tournament this year. Learning through experience became their objective.

NOGA officials have leaned on folks from the Georgia State Golf Association, which also runs an adaptive tournament, and the USGA.

Disabled golfers told NOGA if 15 to 20 people signed up, it would be considered a success in Year 1. They exceeded 20 by three. And they got a quality field, including Ryanne Jackson, a 25-year-old high school history teacher from Florida who cruised to a five-shot victory in the women’s division at the U.S. Adaptive Open in June.

“Part of our role and the USGA’s role is to grow the game of golf, and that isn’t just able-bodied rich people,” Lemieux said. “This is certainly an underserved community. It’s amazing the passion that we’ve found once we got into this space. People have come out of the woodwork saying, ‘Hey, this is great. How do I sign up?’”

One of those people was Lawson, who had his left leg amputated below the knee six years ago, a procedure he actually called a blessing in disguise. A few years prior, he had been in a serious car accident that caused the damage that ultimately led to the amputation.

Following the procedure, the doctor told Lawson that when the pain block let up, he would be in serious pain.

“I still wait on that pain,” the 42-year-old Lawson said. “It never happened.”

Instead, golf happened. Or free golf, as Lawson explained.

“When you show up with one leg, people say, ‘Here you go, dude,’” the central Ohio native said.

The amputation took place on March 30, and by June 9, Lawson was striping tee shots down the middle. The lifelong golfer previously had a quick, powerful swing that sometimes led to spraying the ball. Because his lead leg is the one with a prosthesis, it slows his swing down and he’s more accurate.

Lawson, who holds an adaptive golf teaching license, was a 10 handicap at the beginning of the season and hopes to get down to a 4 by the end of the year. At one point, he was ranked among the top 50 adaptive golfers in the world. In a warmup round last week, he shot an 82, an inadequate performance that he termed an “unfortunate event.”

This is not NOGA’s first involvement with golfers with disabilities. The organization’s charitable arm, The Turn, helps local individuals with disabilities use golf to improve their daily lives. The Turn — located at the Wharton Golf Center at North Olmsted Golf Club — is a 15-acre campus that allows for all adaptive programs to be conducted at one, fully accessible, year-round location. It features a state-of-the-art adaptive fitness center, indoor golf learning center, multipurpose activity room, and a nine-hole golf course with driving range and practice areas.

The Cuyahoga County Board of Developmental Disabilities and the Community West Foundation joined as sponsors for the Ohio Adaptive Open in an effort to empower people with developmental disabilities in northern Ohio and be part of an inclusive, accessible community.

All of the individuals and organizations involved in the inaugural Ohio Adaptive Open hope to replicate or even exceed what’s grown at Pinehurst with the national adaptive Open. The planning began with a literal back-of-the-napkin car-ride conversation. Years of planning have arrived at this moment.

“You can describe it to people, but until you’re there in person and you see it happening, it just takes over you,” Schulze said. “The whole atmosphere of that entire event is one of joy. Everybody there is just so happy that they have a championship to play in and something to aspire to.”

The same can now be said about Ohio.

First Published August 4, 2023, 3:25 p.m.