By CRAIG DOLCH, Special to the USDGA
PORT ST. LUCIE, Florida – Much has changed for the overall defending champions in the seventh PING USDGA Championship Presented by PGA of America that starts Monday at PGA Golf Club.
Chad Pfeifer and Ryanne Jackson have both found new homes – figuratively and literally – since they won last year’s event on PGA Golf Club’s Ryder Course.
Pfeifer, who lost his left leg above the knee in 2007 when he was hit with an IED while serving as an Army Specialist in Iraq, received an adaptive home last September that was donated by Homes for Our Troops in Nampa, Idaho, where he lives with his wife Summer and their three boys.
The new home features more than 40 major adaptations such as widened doorways for wheelchair access, a roll-in shower, and kitchen amenities that include pull-down shelving and lowered countertops.
“The impact is huge,” Pfeifer said. “It’s so much easier to live our lives in this house.”
Jackson’s move was directly attributed to her success in the U.S.’s two premier disabled golf championships – her win in last year’s USDGA came 10 months after she won the 2023 US Adaptive Open (the USDGA is run by the U.S. Disabled Golf Association, the US Adaptive Open is operated by the USGA). Jackson, who has muscular dystrophy, was offered an assistant job by Western Michigan women’s golf coach Kim Moore.
The women know each other well. Moore-Jackson finished 1-2 in the 2022 U.S. Disabled Open, with Jackson beating Moore in 2023.
“I think my recent success helped a lot,” said Jackson, who moved from Seminole, Fla., to Kalamazoo, Mich. “My college career scores weren’t impressive, but I think the fact I won a couple big disabled tournaments was important. Winning is important when you’re coaching a college team.”
Winning has become a habit for Pfeifer. He has won the last two USDGA Championships and three of the last four. It will be a surprise he’s not lifting another trophy Wednesday when the 54-hole event is finished.
“I know I have a target on my back because a lot of guys are looking to try and beat me,” said Pfeifer, who spent last week doing a seven-day golf clinic for injured veterans. “That doesn’t always make it easy.
“It always feels great to win any tournament, much less this one. This is a major in adaptive golf. Jason Faircloth and John Bell and the USDGA do a great job of running this Championship.”
Jackson will have similar high expectations after her recent victories (she finished third in last year’s U.S. Adaptive Open). But her priorities have changed since she went from working at a hospital to helping coach a college team.
“I’ve hit golf balls twice since November,” the 27-year-old Jackson said last week. “I have a job, and practicing isn’t my No. 1 priority anymore. I know I have to play some good golf to win, but it’s nice to know I have won. That puts pressure on other people.”
It’s unlikely Ken Green, who won five times on the PGA Tour and played in a Ryder Cup before losing part of his right leg in a 2009 RV accident, will be able to defend his Senior title. The 66-year-old West Palm Beach resident said Sunday there’s an 80 percent chance he won’t play because of tendinitis in his right wrist.
“I can’t hold the club in my hand properly,” said Green, who had to withdraw from U.S. Adaptive Open qualifying last week. “I just can’t imagine it being ready (by Monday) unless there’s a miracle.
“I’m annoyed because I’ve been waiting for this stretch for a while. The golf gods are something because my putter finally seems to have come back.”
Pfeifer faces formidable, familiar foes in Chris Biggins, a PGA of America Golf Professional at the Country Club at Birmingham, who won the USDGA in 2019 and had a two-shot lead entering last year’s final round before finishing third after a 76; and Jeremy Bittner, who had a three-shot lead over Pfeifer in the final round of 2023 before finishing second.
Other notables in the field: World Golf Hall of Famer Dennis Walters of Jupiter, who won the Seated Division in the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open as well as the 2023 USDGA Championship; and Amy Bockerstette, a Phoenix native with Down syndrome who became known for making par alongside Gary Woodland in the Phoenix Open pro-am in 2019.
The PING USDGA Championship is run by the U.S. Disabled Golf Association and Presented by PGA of America.
