With one day in the books, 27 players will continue their competition into the final round of the Inaugural Indiana Adaptive Golf Championship at Plum Creek Golf Club in Carmel, Indiana.
The Championship is open to all players from all Sport Classes as defined by the United States Adaptive Golf Alliance Player Classification system. The field includes 27 players, representing 9 different impairment categories, as well as an overall senior and overall men’s division.
Our current leader is Evan Mathias of Indianapolis, Indiana, who closed out the first round with 9 pars and 5 birdies, sitting +1, 73. Mathias, who represents the Multiple Leg Division, also competed in the first ever U.S. Adaptive Open Championship in July. The Championship was held at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club July 18-20, where Indiana Native, Kim Moore, secured the Women’s Title. With the USGA creating a national championship for golfers with various disabilities, adaptive golf has been taken to a whole new level, and Indiana Golf is fully dedicated to contributing to this progression.
Trailing closely behind is Kyle Erickson, representing the Below Knee Division, who traveled all the way from Minneapolis, Minnesota, to compete in the Championship. The field includes players from California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, and Wisconsin.
David McCready of Brownsburg, Indiana, who sits in fifth, and represents the Above Knee Division, originally approached Indiana Golf Executive Director, Mike David, proposing an Adaptive Championship opportunity.
“I joined the board with the MidWest Adaptive Golf Association with the idea of bringing an Adaptive tournament to Indiana. I knew it would be important to get the Indiana Golf Association involved and so I just reached out and said I wanted to have a tournament here” says McCready. “I wanted the Indiana Golf Association’s support because I know that is what the IGA does; it puts on great tournaments”.
“We are excited to become involved in the Adaptive Golf arena. We think there is a tremendous interest from this segment of the population and golf is a sport that can be played by everyone” says Mike David. “We hope to grow our programming for adaptive players in the future. The Championship is simply the first step”.
Additional Storyline
Alex Rivera, 22, of Columbus, Indiana, might be far back on the leaderboard, but he’s just happy to be competing. Rivera represents the Below the Knee Division and has been golfing since he was around 2-3 years old. Rivera played middle school and high school golf competitively and then shied away from golf when he got serious with snowboarding.
“I went out to Colorado and I was training for the Paralympics and it was going really well until it wasn’t. Nothing is guaranteed and there are no promises, but I was putting myself in a great position to potentially qualify for Team USA and make the games” said Rivera. “And then on a training day in February of 2021, I just got lazy on one of the course features and had a pretty heavy fall. I did some damage to my arm, snapped and shattered my right humerus, which took about a year to recover from. I unfortunately missed the cut for the games because of it, but we’re just trying to stay positive.”
Divisions
Above Knee (G1) – 4 players
Arm-Assisted (G5) – 6 players
Arm-Unassisted (G4) – 3 players
Below Knee (G2) – 7 players
Blind (G13) – 1 player
CP/MD (G8) – 1 player
Multiple Leg (G3) – 1 player
Seated (G9) – 3 players
Short Stature (G14) 1 player
Overall Men’s Division – 19 players
Overall Senior Division – 8 players