Ken Green: Survivor, Hero, Golfer

SAVANNAH, Ga. -- Thanks to his long pants, Ken Green looked like every other golfer Sunday. What the black slacks hid, the white shoes gave away.

His left one was a size 10. The right one sported a size 6. It had four names scribbled on it.

"Brother Bill, Jeannie, Hunter and Nip.


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"The four that I've lost," Green said.

It's actually five if you count body parts.

What was a man who's lost his brother, his son, his girlfriend, his dog and his lower right leg doing in a pro golf tournament?

"If I start talking about it," Green said, "I'll probably end up bawling."

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The rest of us can only rub our eyes in amazement. Green and Mike Reid tied for 26th in the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf.

They finished ahead of players like Curtis Strange, Fuzzy Zoeller and Ben Crenshaw. All of whom, it should be noted, have two good legs.

Green and Reid had three between them. Despite that, they shot 12-under par. It was the lowest (and only) score in competitive golf history for a man wearing a prosthetic leg.

So what if he and his partner finished 16 shots behind Mark O'Meara and Nick Price?

"It won't register as a win," Reid said, "but it's a win."

Especially when you factor in what Green has been through. The quick synopsis: A rebel spirit in his younger days, battled depression, got life together at 50. It all ran off the road last June.

His RV blew a tire and tumbled down an embankment in Mississippi. Killed were his brother, William Green, his girlfriend, Jean Hodgin, and his beloved German Shepherd, Nip.

On Green's orders, surgeons cut off his right leg below the knee. A fake leg would be easier to play golf on than a mangled one.

And Green knew he would need to play. Especially after son Hunter died of a drug overdose last fall.

"It was a tough pill to swallow. How are you going to react?" Green said. "How are you going to move forward? Golf was my pill, so to speak."

A win on the Champions Tour could never replace a brother or a son, but golf can be therapy. Something more than a search for birdies is driving Green.

"Seeing not only the awkwardness, but the pain he endured this week," Reid said. "It's just a measure of how much he loves the game."

It's about the only thing he hasn't lost in the past 10 months. But put all that heartache aside. Even if Green's knee had been bitten off by an alligator, nobody thought he'd be playing golf again so soon.

"There are 1,000 different thoughts and feels you have," Reid said. "I can't imagine what it's like just to invent a swing on every hole."

Amateurs do it all the time, which is why they are amateurs. Green is teeing it up against Tom Watson.
He's been rebuilding his swing with the help of CBS golf analyst Peter Kostis. It's like Eric Clapton having to learn to play the guitar with his left hand. And then trying to perform Layla in front of 10,000 paying customers.
He's been rebuilding his swing with the help of CBS golf analyst Peter Kostis. It's like Eric Clapton having to learn to play the guitar with his left hand.

And then trying to perform Layla in front of 10,000 paying customers.

"I had no clue what was going to happen," Green said.

His first few shots on Friday were screeching disasters. Then he hit a six-iron from the rough to within 15 feet of the hole. It was his first green-in-regulation since his life tumbled down that embankment. He quickly pocketed two birdies.

"And make sure you note that I did out-drive O'Meara," Green said.

The Hollywood ending would have had him beating O'Meara in the final round. Instead, we got the Savannah ending.

Doctors say it will be another year before the nerves at the bottom of Green's knee stop crackling. Even though he used a cart, three straight days of golf were about 36 holes too many.

"It's a feeling I wouldn't even want to give to my ex-wife," Green said. "It's a bizarre pain. But that's my life right now."

Throw in the improvised swings, the throbbing left ankle, the anxiety, the utter improbability of it all. Cart or not, it's safe to say no golfer has ever had to carry so much baggage.

"It sucks," Green said, "I mean, there's no way around it."

He was just trying to be honest, not angling for sympathy. Rain and wind blew in Sunday. You try getting a decent stance with a fake leg on wet grass. What Green lacked in birdies he made up for in admirers.

"You're my hero," one fan said.

Green shook the man's hand and limped on his way.

"I have more desire and fight than I've had in 30 years," he said. "I can't tell you how desperately I want to do this."

He didn't have to. His right shoe said it all.