A scramble this month at Woodside Club on Long Island highlights the season for the graduating classes of the Met PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere). The program, which began in 2015 with a single chapter of 25 veterans, now has three chapters serving 500 military veterans throughout Westchester, the Hudson Valley, Long Island, and the Bronx.
Met PGA HOPE is a six-week adaptive golf program provided to veterans free of charge by PGA Professionals from the Metropolitan Section of the PGA of America. It is meant enhance their overall quality of life by introducing the veterans to golf in a fun, supportive way. The program is open to all veterans, but is geared specifically to those suffering from disabilities.
Many veterans in the program suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder, traumatic brain injury, require a wheelchair, have limited sight, or use various prostheses. The PGA pros are trained to work with them.
Each participant in the graduating class receives his or her own set of golf clubs upon graduation and, the Metropolitan PGA maintains a golf league specifically for the veterans so that they can continue to play with each other and further their abilities after graduation.
