Annie Hayes

Annie Hayes

BY RICHARD LORD Eagle correspondent 7.7.23

It was only a few days after Annie Hayes was paralyzed from the waist down in a 2006 bike accident that she learned her golfing days weren’t over.

Since then it’s been golf, golf and more golf for Hayes, who is headed to North Carolina’s famed Pinehurst Resort next week for the second consecutive July to participate in the second U.S. Adaptive Open.

It will be the Berkshire Hills Country Club member’s third national event in the past calendar year. The 60-year-old participated in the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open last July and in May’s U.S. Disabled Open in Port St. Lucie, Fla.

Hayes continues to defy the odds given what happened on Aug. 18, 2006 when a tire on her bike got caught in a gap on a temporary bridge in Kirvin Park and flipped her onto her back in the creek bed, leaving her paralyzed from the waist down.

“Eloise [Trainor] and I visited Annie two days after the accident,” recalls edu-Kaytion Golf owner Kay McMahon. “We had a nice chat on the ways she could still play golf and I told her about SoloRider Golf Carts,” a single-person cart with a seat that swivels around to set the golfer up to hit their shot.

That news from LPGA Professionals like the Hall-of-Famer Mc-Mahon, and Trainor, the director of innovation and administration at eduKaytion Golf, was what Hayes needed to hear. “It had actually popped into my head as I sat in the creek bed, believing I was paralyzed, that it was a bummer that I wouldn’t be able to play golf because I was getting good at it,” Hayes said. “Then, a few days later, Kay visited and told me about still being able to play and about the golf cart.” Remarkably, Hayes was active within six months after 10 hours of surgery and five weeks of rehabbing at the Spaulding Rehabilitation Center in Boston.

In addition to working on her new golf swing, Hayes also participated in the 30th annual Women’s Day Race at Berkshire Community College on May 14, 2007, as the first wheelchair participant in the race’s history.

“Golf is the thing where I feel the most independent and I love it for that reason. That’s why I would encourage other people who are paraplegics to get into the game. It’s just one of those sports that you can be independent and play.”

A NNIE H AYES , of Lee

While Hayes was active in sports from an early age, she didn’t take golf up seriously until age 42 and was making progress prior to the accident.

‘First of all, Annie was definitely a good athlete, running, biking and canoeing, and she loved the outdoors,”

McMahon said. “Just starting, she was in the high 50s and low 60s (for nine holes) but she got into the 40s quickly. She had a great work ethic, understood what she was learning and was able to execute it.”

Of course, it was like starting all over following the accident. Hitting from the cart requires a more upright swing to avoid hitting the bag of clubs located on the front of the vehicle, something teacher and student learned very quickly.

“I’m giving her a lesson and she has a brand new set of clubs on the front of the cart,” McMahon recalled. “She takes her first swing and cracks the head on her driver and reacts by saying ‘guess I’m going to have to hit a 3-wood.’ Her sense of humor in accepting her situation was amazing.”

Hayes remembers the moment, one that she repeated a few times.

“You’ve got to have a sense of humor, if you don’t laugh you will cry,” Hayes said. “It’s a common occurrence, you have to use a steeper swing. I’ve broken some other clubs but I’ve gotten used to the swing and I’m not breaking them anymore.”

While McMahon’s credentials are elite and she had experience with a paraplegic friend, this was new territory.

“You are doing something totally different, so you have to be creative,” Mc-Mahon said. “The biggest thing is to listen to the student, it’s a team event.”

In this case, the student was all-in. “Annie had such determination to get better and I really admired that,” said McMahon.

Hayes said during the “first week or so” of working with her new golfing reality she wasn’t sure she could do it, but that concern didn’t last long.

“It took a few years, but I knew I could do it and get good at it,” she said. “I knew I wasn’t going to be a scratch golfer, but I hoped to get down to bogey golf.”

Hayes eventually accomplished that, though 18-hole rounds in the 80s have dwindled as she’s gotten older.

“My lowest score at Berkshire Hills was 85, but that was when I was 50,” Hayes said. “It’s harder now since I’ve lost some distance with my shots.”

That said, she did finish off her performance at Port St. Lucie with a final- round 88 to finish third-place overall after starting the tournament with rounds of 98 and 93, a big improvement over her debut performance at Pinehurst No. 6.

”I was nervous at Pinehurst,” she admitted. “There is sand everywhere.”

That matters because going in the sand is a one-shot penalty in the tournament’s Seated Golfer division because you can’t drive a cart into the sand to hit a recovery shot.

“Port St. Lucie was a little easier but there were still a lot of nerves and I still had traps in my mind,” she said. “I was not even close to being satisfied.”

It was her husband, Chuck Geradi, who initially told her about the Pine-hurst tournament and suggested that she enter. She said yes for more than just the opportunity to compete.

“I wanted to be represented and maybe get other paraplegic women out there to realize this is a game you can play,” she said. “I just come out, roll down to my cart and drive to the first tee.”

“I wish I had played in more tournaments,” she added. “I might have been ready. I’ve tried really hard to keep my fitness but I’ve probably lost 20 to 30 yards on my drives over the past 10 years. It’s all about age.”

That lost yardage means Hayes can no longer reach some greens in regulation that she used to reach, putting more pressure on her short game, especially her chipping, which she says is the strongest part of her game.

“I practice chipping a lot,” she said. “I try to avoid three putts and I try hard to get within a couple of feet so I can one-putt.”

Talk to the three pros who have worked with Hayes — McMahon, former Berkshire Hills head pro and current Taconic Golf Club head pro Josh Hill-man, and current Hills head pro Mike Hillman — and they focus on their student’s determination to succeed.

“The best thing with Annie is there is no giving up, she enjoys working, likes the challenge and wants to be competitive,” said Josh Hillman, whom Hayes credits with helping her improve her iron game. “She’s come a long way.”

In preparation for next week, Hayes has recently worked with Mike Hillman, “[he’s] been great helping me with my course management and chipping,” she said.

While tournament golf currently has Hayes’ full attention, it’s the overall golfing experience of being on golf courses over the past 17 years that she appreciates the most.

“Golf has brought lots of fun and joy to my life, getting to be outside playing golf with friends and my husband,” she said.

Hayes was the only woman in the Seated Golfer category at Pinehurst in 2022, and while that will be the case again next week, Hayes is still hopeful that more female paraplegics will take up the sport.

“Golf is the thing where I feel the most independent and I love it for that reason,” Hayes said. “That’s why I would encourage other people who are paraplegics to get into the game. It’s just one of those sports that you can be independent and play”

To contact Richard Lord: call 413 281-2226 or email relord633@gmail.com