My City September 2022

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Just five days following that cel ebration, Ramin was officially noti fied that he made the U.S. Adaptive Open field. By the opening round on July 18, Ramin had whittled his handicap to about 1.7. He also takes pride in shooting scores in the 70s for 18 holes more regularly than before the accident. Unfortunately, Ramin struggled to a 94 in the first round before rebounding for an 81 in round two and finishing with an 89. His 264 final score left Ramin tied for 51st in a field of 78 male entrants. “I was hitting the ball well, but had trouble whenever it wound up in the sand,” he shares. “I struggled to find the best way to get the ball out of it which probably cost me 20 shots or more. I had a bunch of silly bogeys and took a nine on one hole, but the overall experience at Pinehurst was phenomenal.” Ramin followed that experience by winning his sixth Michigan Adaptive Golf Championship, shooting 151 (77-74) for 36 holes less than a week later at Pine View Golf Course in Three Rivers. It’s difficult to imagine how Ramin’s commitment to furthering adaptive golf could be any better. In addition to his U.S. Adaptive Golf Alliance and National Ampu tee Golf Association duties, he is a Michigan Amputee Golf Associa tion board member, helps oversee WR4GD rankings and conducts

Years of planning followed before the first U.S. Adaptive Open was finally announced last Decem ber. Ramin was elated. “Yeah, it was an incredible mo ment because adaptive golfers now had a major championship,” he says. “I was so happy for all the players who were going to benefit.” Ramin applied for entry into the tournament in February, but preparing for it was going to re quire some work. He began sharp ening his game which had taken a hit last year after he began a new job running a business which places massage chairs in malls. “I felt I was going to get into the tournament because I had done so much to set it up, but was a little worried about how I might do be cause I had not been able to play as much golf and my handicap slipped to a three,” he says. Soon, Ramin’s handicap began to improve, which was important because another major competition was looming sooner. Ramin was named captain of Team USA for the Cairns Cup which pits adaptive golfers from the United States against a Euro pean team in a Ryder Cup-style series of matches. He led a 21-2 Team USA trouncing at The Shire Golf Club in London May 7-13. He returned home after celebrat ing with teammates and taking a drink from the Cup.

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