By Christopher Johnson
This weekend, The 71st Michigan Adaptive Golf Championship will be taking place in Bath Township, Michigan, hosted at Hawk Hollow Golf Club. The event is hosted by the Michigan Amputee Golf Association (MAGA) in partnership with the Golf Association of Michigan.
Jeremy Zebrowski , who frequents Firefly Gold Course in Clare, is one of several adaptive athletes who will be attending the event. He has been golfing in similar tournaments for nearly eight years and remembers his first game was a fundraiser. What he remembers more fondly however, was the fraternal energy he found amidst the other players who competed.
“I walked in not knowing anybody,” he said. “I walked out with this new group of friends and it’s like we’d known each other for years.”
JD Pakledinaz is another adaptive player who will be joining Jeremy at the tournament this weekend. Along with a pool of 80 adaptive golfers from across the country.
Born with Spina Bifida, Pakledinaz has used a wheelchair his entire life. He has been golfing since he was seven or eight years old, using a SoloRider adaptive golf cart and custom-built clubs that allow him to play the game he loves.
Although the tournament celebrates competition, both men say the event is just as much about camaraderie as it is about scorecards.
“We’ve all got different stories,” Jeremy said. “We’re all there for each other.”
A regular at Eagle Glen Golf Course, Pakledinaz plays in a weekly league and usually spends several more days each week on the course sharpening his game. This year’s tournament will mark his fifth appearance after being introduced to the Michigan Amputee Golf Association by Jeremy.
“My mom was working behind the bar at Eagle Glen,” Pakledinaz recalled. “Jeremy mentioned the organization after he saw me there.”
Since then, Pakledinaz has become a familiar face at the tournament, where one of his proudest golfing memories remains a personal-best 45 over nine holes during a trip to Iowa.
Jeremy’s journey to adaptive golf followed a very different path.
Seventeen years ago, he survived a devastating car crash when another driver struck the driver’s side of his vehicle at highway speed. The accident left him with life-altering injuries, leading to 14 surgeries and nearly four years of physical therapy.
“I shouldn’t be here,” he said.
Despite losing the use of one arm, Jeremy continued golfing, adapting his swing rather than giving up the sport. A chance conversation with the sibling of an adaptive golfer eventually introduced him to the Michigan Amputee Golf Association.
The organization quickly became more than a place to compete.
Players include military veterans, people born with disabilities, amputees and others adapting to injuries from vehicle crashes, workplace accidents and illnesses. While competitors fall into different adaptive classifications, Jeremy says those distinctions disappear once everyone arrives.
“It doesn’t matter if we’re one-arm adaptive, leg adaptive, seated or blind,” he said. “We’re all one big group.”
For Jeremy, one of the biggest differences is that no one stands out.
“Here at home, you’re the guy golfing with one arm or the guy in the different cart,” he said. “Down there, we’re just golfers.”
Both golfers hope their stories encourage others with disabilities to give the sport a chance.
“Don’t be afraid to come out and try it,” Pakledinaz said. “There have been people who had never golfed before they played in this tournament.”
Jeremy echoed that message, saying adaptive golf proves there is rarely just one way to overcome a challenge.
“Never quit.” He says, reiterating the slogan of the North American One-Armed Golf Association (NAOAGA). “No one way is right. No one way is wrong.”
The Michigan Adaptive Open begins Friday with a fundraising scramble pairing adaptive and non-adaptive golfers before championship rounds are contested Saturday and Sunday. Spectators are welcome to attend and follow players around the course.
For Pakledinaz and Zebrowski however, the tournament represents something larger than competition. It is a weekend spent among friends who understand one another’s journeys—and where every golfer is simply another golfer.
