Jul. 24—Matthew Doyle can remember having one phone call that was vastly different than the others he was taking during the college recruitment process.
The school, the academics, the campus, the golf program itself — all typical topics of conversation as a coach tries to lure a player to a program.
The talk Doyle had with University of Oregon head coach Casey Martin didn’t check any of those boxes.
All they talked about were their hips.
Doyle, a rising senior at Elon University, has a condition called Legg-Calvé-Perthes disease, which cuts off blood flow to the head of the thigh bone and causes an abnormality that he’s described as causing bone-on-bone contact within the hip joint.
Martin, a longtime former pro golfer, fought through a circulatory condition that affected his ability to walk and in 2001 won a Supreme Court decision against the PGA Tour for the right to use a golf cart during competitive rounds.
Martin’s fight paved the way for others with disabilities to receive medical exemptions to use carts on the golf course, which Doyle realized would allow him to play Division I and high-level amateur golf.
He’s in a cart this week at the 49th Palmetto Amateur, a purple handicapped flag clipped to the roof as he makes his way around Palmetto Golf Club.
His range of motion is limited, and his golf swing is a lot more arms-based than any teaching pro would recommend — but it works.
Look no further than day one at Palmetto, where his bogey-free round of 5-under 65 left him alone atop the leaderboard as only four of the 81 players in the field broke par.
“It’s definitely tough. I was telling my teammates, the first 16-and-a-half holes I played pretty stress-free,” Doyle said. “… I was really just trying to game plan out here. The big defense around this course is the greens, just game planning where you want to leave yourself is huge. My dad and I were in the fairway just saying, I’d rather be 20 feet long left than 5 feet short right depending on the hole. It’s tough. You’ve really just got to know your misses out here and just grind.”
This is Doyle’s third consecutive appearance at the Palmetto Amateur and his second at Palmetto — last year’s tournament was played at The Reserve Club while Palmetto underwent renovations.
He hasn’t had the best track record in this tournament, but that’s done nothing to dampen his enthusiasm.
“It’s just amazing out here. It always is. The greens are perfect. The course is in pristine condition,” he said. “The biggest difference for me has been my mental game the last couple of years, just staying patient knowing that you’re going to be tested out here. Like I told my dad out there, I had a 6-footer for birdie and I was lagging it up there.
“You’re really just trying to avoid bogeys or big numbers here, and that was kind of what I told myself going into it. I haven’t played good here the last two years. A couple of years ago, I made like a 10-footer for par on 18 here to make the cut on the number. Last year, I missed the cut by one. This tournament’s kind of had my number, so I’m glad I was able to stay patient all day and finally get a good round in.”
His upbeat attitude also burst through in how he described the difficult spots he put himself — and his father Mike, who’s caddying but cannot ride in the cart — in over the final four holes of the day.
That’s part of the difference in his mental approach. He was told at a young age he’d never be able to play anything again, having to give up things like baseball and running. But he still has golf — and by just being on the course and competing when that previously seemed impossible, he’s already won.
“The biggest thing is I want to inspire other people,” he said. “People with my condition, they get told all the time, ‘Oh, you can’t play sports.’ I’m hoping I can impact some people to where they pick up golf because of it. The biggest thing is just persevering. I’ve had to do it since a young age, which I think has helped me mature and grow up really quick.
“Obviously it’s a little different physically than playing golf. I mean, it’s a blessing to be out here every day, and that’s kind of what I treat it as. It’s the biggest difference in the last couple years in my mental game is just knowing that I’m out here playing the sport that I love, competing to win. It’s great.”
