One of the spectators put it best during the closing ceremonies, as players from both teams marched in behind uniformed colorguard carrying each nation’s flag. “I haven’t cried like this since the first run of ‘Terms of Endearment,’ ” a fan said. Those around him chuckled to keep from breaking into sobs themselves.
Overwhelming emotions are the order of the day every time the Simpson Cup is contested.
And if you’ve never heard of the Simpson Cup, look it up. You won’t be sorry.
A Ryder Cup-style format, this team competition pits injured military veterans from Great Britain against their wounded counterparts from the United States. The brainchild of former IMG executive John Simpson, the 10th edition of the matches was played at Baltusrol this week. Great Britain captured the cup in resounding fashion, 13½-5½, and the winning team celebrated on the deck of the iconic clubhouse, hoisting pints and offering hugs.
The matches are now tied 5-5 in the event’s history. And while the competitors certainly care – every one of them is a hyper-competitive, type-A personality – the outcome is the least important aspect of this thing.
“Golf seems to be the sport that saves them,” Simpson said in describing his motivation behind forming the On Course Foundation, the charitable beneficiary of the Simpson Cup. “It’s the one sport where (wounded veterans) can play with able-bodied people on a level playing field. Someone shows up with no legs and asks for a game, you say, ‘OK, I’m a 14. Let’s go play.’ That gives them the confidence to re-enter society.”
This year’s team had players that fans might know. A veteran of the 3rd Battalion, 509th Infantry Regiment, 4th Brigade (Airborne), 25th Infantry Division, Chad Pfeifer had his left leg blown off in Iraq. Since then, he has won the Warrior Open three times, the National Amputee Championship three times, and is the only amputee to play in a Korn Ferry Tour event. On the Great Britain side, Mike Brown, a 43-year-old former Royal Artillery gunner who is missing his left leg below the knee, holds three course records and has played professionally for the last five years.
But there are plenty of stories you don’t know. And many that you should.
“I’m retired 7th Special Forces Group, A Team Echo, communications sergeant,” John Goudie told me from the parking lot at Baltusrol as he prepared for this year’s matches. “I got hurt in April 2012, an insider attack while we were out doing patrol operations in Afghanistan. I was shot multiple times at close range. It resulted in the loss of my left leg below the knee and loss of my right humerus and ball. I lost a lot of muscle and nerves in my right arm and hand. I lost most of my deltoid and my right bicep. I took five to the body and one to the leg.
“It took well over 50 surgeries to put me back together again. But when I came back from Walter Reed (hospital), I did a Tough Mudder USA in December of 2012 in Sarasota with some other guys from my unit. So, I completed an 11½-mile race through some pretty tough conditions. Then I signed back in and by August of 2013 I was back to jumping and doing water operations with the guys. I spent ’14, some of ’15 and ’16 back in full combat missions in Afghanistan. I just had to retrain myself. I shot my pistol left-handed and left-eyed.
“Then I joined On Course (Foundation) after I transitioned out. I’d never played golf before. They put me with Larry Ziegler (as my coach). They told Larry, ‘We’ve got the perfect guy for you. He has anger issues, one leg, one arm that doesn’t work, and he’s never held a club before.’ The first match we played, Larry said, ‘How many balls do you have?’ I said, ‘Larry, I don’t have anything. I don’t even have shoes. I had to go buy golf clothes yesterday.’ So he laughed, grabbed a bunch of balls, threw them into my rental bag and said, ‘You’re going to need every one of these.’ ”
Goudie lost both of his matches at Baltusrol, but he played well both days. On Tuesday, he will head back to work in the golf industry, which is what Simpson hoped to accomplish when he formed On Course.
“I love when an amputee shows up on the first tee and the able-bodied players don’t know what to expect. Then our player hits it long and straight down the middle.” – John Simpson
“I am disabled,” Simpson told me as he gathered his team in New Jersey. “I had polio as a kid in one leg. One day in 2009, I played with this chap and played quite well. He asked me if I would go speak to his group. At the time, I wasn’t quite sure what he did.”
Simpson’s random playing companion that day turned out to be an executive at Headley Court, an 85-acre U.K. Defense Medical Rehabilitation center near Surrey, England.
“That’s when it dawned on me that I’m in a position, being in the golf industry, where I could start a charity and teach (injured veterans) golf as part of their rehabilitation and then get them jobs in the golf industry,” Simpson said. “That was the genesis of the On Course Foundation. We teach them (golf) on a long-term basis, starting with the etiquette, rules, and history. Because when they have their self-confidence and self-esteem back, that’s when we have them go and talk to people within the golf industry, so they have to know who Arnold Palmer is and how it all works.
“In the U.K., we’ve placed (wounded veterans in) just over 200 (jobs). We have 2,000 members. Many are greenskeepers. We’ve placed some in the marketing department at Callaway, and some with Invited (formerly ClubCorp). Obviously, it depends on their injuries as to what they can do.
“America is the big push for us at the moment,” Simpson said. “There are just under 4 million injured servicemen in this country, and 21 commit suicide every day.” That number is from a 2012 Veteran’s Administration Suicide Data Report and the numbers have come under some scrutiny. Even so, no one disputes that the number of veteran suicides is too high.
There are loads of worthy veteran charities, from Folds of Honor to the Wounded Warrior Project to Tunnel to Towers and everything in between. But few focus solely on golf. That is where On Course is different, and why the Simpson Cup is the one team event, in a calendar full of them, that every fan should support.
“The Simpson Cup came about in 2012 when I thought, given my background at IMG and my experience with events, we could A) raise awareness for the On Course Foundation, B) raise funds for the On Course Foundation and C) give something for the guys and gals in the On Course Foundation something to work toward to represent their country again,” Simpson said. “We started at TPC Sawgrass in 2012, and then at Oak Hill and Congressional and the Maidstone Club, and now at Baltusrol. All the ones in Great Britain have been at Open venues – Royal St. George’s, Royal Birkdale, Royal Lytham and St. Andrews, as well.
“It’s funny, when I first rang up the clubs, they would say, ‘Oh, yeah, sure, we give 10 percent off the green fees and carts to charities.’ That’s standard. But now, 10 years in, our costs have actually gone down, because when we turned up, and (club members and officers) saw who (the participants) were and what we were doing at On Course, they would ask us to please come again and they would throw in the carts and green fees for nothing. So, all we pay for is the food and accommodations.”
For those rooting for Team USA, no matter what the event, the Americans, for the first time in 10 contests, had a competitor who is a triple amputee, both legs above the knee and one arm. He plays off a 15 handicap.
“I love when an amputee shows up on the first tee and the able-bodied players don’t know what to expect,” Simpson said. “Then our player hits it long and straight down the middle.
“They can get involved in a sport and play as normal. That’s where the self-esteem comes from. That’s when we get them back.”