Editor's note: A few weeks ago, we came across a story about Monty Elam, a legally blind golf pro who had graduated from Penn State's World Campus with a degree in turfgrass management. Recently, TurfNet caught up with Elam to learn more about his inspiring story.
There was a time in Monty Elam's career as a teaching professional when his input was not always welcomed by colleagues during annual budget meetings with club owners and managers from other departments.
"Superintendents never cared about my experience during budget meetings," Elam said. "They didn't care how much experience I had because I was a PGA professional, not a superintendent. It was almost like they were saying 'I'm the agronomist, so you need to go sit over there and be quiet.' "Like a lot of things in Elam's life, that seems like oh so long ago.
Elam, 52, has been a teaching professional since 1992 and has been a card-carrying member of the PGA of America since 1995. Legally blind for the past 10 years, Elam doesn't give many lessons these days, but limited vision has done nothing to affect his ability to run a golf operation. And for the past seven years, he has plied his trade as director of golf at Whiteford Valley Golf Club in Ottawa, Michigan.
His story is an inspiring record of triumph over adversity. Oh, and his opinions at those meetings carry a little more weight now.
Last spring, Elam earned a bachelor's degree in turfgrass management through Penn State's online World Campus and is working toward a master's in the same field. His hope is to spend his retirement teaching future turfgrass managers.
A self-described lifelong learner, Elam studied turf management for several reasons. Expanding his knowledge base gives him more credibility within the industry and throughout the operation at Whiteford Valley. He loves the science behind growing highly managed turf - and keeping it healthy - and it gives him options for the next phase of his career after his wife, Lisa, retires from her teaching position in the Toledo, Ohio public schools in the not-to-distant future.
"I'd like to teach turf management or soils," he said. "My wife has about seven more years to work, then she can retire. That opens the doors to moving.
"Teaching is what I want to do. If I have to move to do it, that's OK."
It would have been easy for Elam to fold the tent on his PGA career as well as his emerging plans to teach future turf managers, but that's not his way.
Ten years ago, Elam, then the owner of Blackberry Patch Golf Course in Coldwater, Michigan, had just undergone what was supposed to be routine laser surgery to remove blood vessels that had formed on the backs of his eyes. But something went horribly wrong, and both eyes were overexposed to the laser.
"I couldn't see at all for six months," he said. "You learn a lot about yourself in six months. Things you took for granted, from boiling a pot of water to going to the bathroom, you don't take for granted anymore.
"And things you once thought were important, they're not important anymore."
Honestly, I can say the biggest regret I have is buying that golf course. We bought it when it was overpriced, during the golf boom. It put a strain on us financially, and it put a strain on our marriage. If this hadn't happened, I can't say my wife and I would still be together."
Doctors, Elam said, assured him that his vision would return to normal. When it didn't, he was referred to the Cleveland Clinic.
Eventually, he regained partial sight in his left eye, a sensation he described as relatively normal close-up, but increasingly cloudy the farther away an object appears. To this day, he remains completely blind in his right eye.
That reality, coupled with a sinking golf industry, was enough to get him out of the business of owning a golf course. Ironically, he had to lean on his wife heavily for support.
About 100 miles separated the Elam's home, then in Bowling Green, Ohio, and Blackberry Patch. Each week, he would leave for the golf course on Monday morning and return home on Saturday evening, spending weeknights in hotels or in members' vacant summer cottages near the golf course, leaving his wife and twin daughters at home.
When he returned home for the weekends, his mind often was elsewhere, usually on work. It was not an ideal situation for anyone involved.
"I was gone all the time," Elam said. "Even when I was home, I wasn't really here mentally."
Life now is a lot different. Elam can't drive a car. He can play golf - with help. Some people would resent such a fate, but Elam embraces it and welcomes the positive changes it has brought to his life.
"Honestly, I can say the biggest regret I have is buying that golf course. We bought it when it was overpriced, during the golf boom," he said. "It put a strain on us financially, and it put a strain on our marriage. If this hadn't happened, I can't say my wife and I would still be together.
"This whole thing has made us really close."
He even manages to get out and play golf a couple of times a month with help from his wife or daughters.
"I can see the top of the ball in the grass, but someone has to stand behind me and help me aim and watch my ball," he said.
"I'm OK off the tee, and my second shot's not too bad. Where I have problems are pitch shots from 20 to 30 yards. I can't see the pin, so my shot is based on what someone tells me. Same with putting. I have to walk to the hole and back and feel the undulations underneath me.
"I'd like to have my vision back to play golf. How I played then, and how I play now, there is a big difference. I'm still able to do everything at the golf course. I work the counter. Until a customer gets close I can't see a face, but I function OK. Nobody knows I'm blind, and they don't need to know"
Until now.