From a young age my brother, Matt Snowdon, excelled in Golf. Hoping to share the game that he loved with his son, our father Matt gave a small set of clubs in a red Snoopy bag for his fourth birthday. Nobody knew it at the time, but those Snoopy clubs marked the start of an extraordinary journey for Matt, one that still unfolds with every swing he takes.
“The first day we went to the driving range, he was probably five,” my father, Andrew, recalls. “I put on a ball for him and gave him an iron. I really didn’t expect that much – maybe he makes contact or, the best case, he is standing up. But at the first swing the ball stepped in the air, go straight like a string. That happened again and again. At a certain point people came to look at the range and just shake their heads.”
A naturally talented left-handed golfer in five years old is a rarity-rarer there is one with several handicaps.
Matt, who is now 25, has been diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disorders (idd) and autism spectrum disorder (ASD). These influence are speech and cognition, but their invisible nature makes it impossible to know about his disabilities by looking at him alone. Matt can walk semi-dependent, talk and live live, but he is struggling to construct sentences, cannot drive or understand money, fight memory problems and will always require a certain degree of support.
“But in the world of Golf, where he can really concentrate on only him and the ball or only him on the track, he has learned to manage the frustrations very well,” says Lance Clawson, Matt’s old psychiatrist, who remarks how unusual it is for someone with Matt’s challenges to excel in sport. “You don’t see this often, and you really don’t see it in games such as Golf, where it needs so much focus and so much capacity to keep control.”
With the help of GolfTop 100 teacher Bernie Najar, Matt has sustained a handicap index as impressive as 4.7, so that he was placed in a category with less than 9 percent of male golfers in the United States. According to Jim Schmutz, the president and CEO of Special Olympics Maryland, Matt, in the field of disabled golf, is “probably a top 10 player in the world.”
The challenge for Matt is finding competitive play options. “It was too easy for me,” says Matt about his recent experience in the Special Olympics, where everyone plays from the forward T pieces. ‘But I usually play the tips, [so] It is not the way I normally perform from that kind of simple levels. I just like to play it in the more difficult way. “
That is why Matt hopes to compete in the American adaptive open. The USGA tournament offers a competitive experience for golfers whose handicap includes, visual, intellectual and coordination disorders.
When Matt does not work intensely with his team of doctors and therapists to improve his communication and emotional regulation skills, he is on the course and perfects his game. For him every day is a challenge if he promotes his way in a world that is not designed with him in mind. But it is his relentless drive – on and out of the track – who leaves a lasting impression on someone who is happy enough to cross paths with him.
Abby Snowdon is an aspiring journalist who will enter her junior year at the University of Virginia this fall.
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