The mission of American Lake Veterans Golf Course is a simple, yet noble calling: to offer rehabilitation, socialization and support to veterans with physical and psychological wounds.
Superintendents throughout Washington and Oregon recently did their part to help the course on the grounds of a Veterans Administration Hospital near Seattle in its mission by volunteering their time and expertise to help prepare for the upcoming playing season.
Dozens of superintendents on March 14 turned out at American Lake, a not-for-profit operation located at the Veteran's Administration Puget Sound Healthcare System in Lakewood, Washington to help superintendent Randy Moen aerify greens and tees, restore and repair bunkers and generally clean up so the course can be ready to provide a service to those who need it most and who have paid a steep price to serve their country.
"Forty guys from two associations showed up and probably knocked out about a month-and-a-half of work in six hours," Moen said. "Just incredible."
For Sean Reehoorn, president of the Western Washington GCSA and superintendent at Aldarra Golf Club in Sammamish, giving his time and talents to the American Lake project was personal.
"My dad was a veteran; my dad served in Vietnam, so giving back on this platform is something that is near and dear to my heart," Reehoorn said. "And any time you get a chance to thank people and pay it forward, it's always fun."
The efforts of the Washington and Oregon contingent were the subject of a Youtube video.
American Lake opened in the 1950s as a nine-hole operation and was owned and operated by the Department of Defense until 1995, when the government ceased funding the course and all other VA golf facilities nationwide.
The course nearly closed its doors after several years of financial hardship, but today is managed by the Friends of American Lake, a 501 c3 organization. In 2013, Jack Nicklaus donated his design services to expand the course to 18 holes so it could further serve its constituents through healing through the power of golf regardless of whatever wounds they have, mental or physical, said American Lake general manager Bruce McKenty, who also is a Vietnam War veteran.
The goal of the the members of the two associations was to help Moen provide golfers with the best possible conditions.
"Today, we go the Oregon chapter and the Washington chapter together, both golf course superintendents associations to come out and kinda take some of our knowledge and take some of what we know and give back to a worthwhile cause … ," said Oregon GCSA president Gabe Hughes, superintendent at The Reserve Vineyards and Golf Club in Aloha.
At American Lake there are golfers with brain injuries who need the assistance of service dogs, amputees, double-amputees and those with spinal injuries or who because they are paralyzed from the waist down only can play from a specially designed golf cart with a seat that lifts them into a standing position to strike the ball or putt.
In 2013, Aaron Boyle, a U.S. Army veteran who in 2010 lost his right arm above the elbow and right leg above the knee in a mine explosion in Afghanistan, told TurfNet what American Lakes and the opportunity to play assisted golf meant to him.
"It represents the opportunity to get out and function, but learn what your body can do and can't do," Boyle said. "It also lets you know that you're not the only one who has gone through something like this."
