| Posted on: Thursday, November 1, 2001
• This week's Holes in One
Around the Greens
Wahiawa's Plouffe overcomes obstacles
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| "It was a little hard, but I just stuck with it, trying to get a swing going," Brian Plouffe says of his golf game.
KIyle Sackowski • The The Honolulu Advertiser
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By Bill Kwon
Golf is tough enough to play well as it is. But imagine playing it with only one arm — and still hitting drives averaging 260 yards and playing to a single-digit handicap.
No problem for Brian Plouffe, who lost his right arm after getting electrocuted by a high voltage line working at a summer job eight years ago.
Most guys would be feeling sorry for themselves. Not Plouffe, a 1995 Leilehua High School graduate, who finished in eighth place after sharing the B-Flight lead the first two rounds of the Barbers Point Invitational. He also made the cut in the Army Open earlier this summer.
And the 24-year-old Wahiawa native, who took up golf less than four years ago, still thinks he can improve his game.
Plouffe's story is one of a remarkable comeback, one that saw him literally getting off the ground after a near-fatal accident and looking life straight in the eye.
He was in a fruit-picking lift with a co-worker at a lychee farm in Mililani when his left shoulder brushed against a high voltage line.
"I really don't know what happened. When I woke up I was lying on the ground," Plouffe said.
Apparently the electrical charge surged through his body and exited through his limbs, destroying all the blood vessels in his right arm.
Plouffe, who was hospitalized for two months, had to have the arm amputated.
"I was just glad that I was still alive. I accepted it (losing his arm). You just have to move on," he said.
He began golfing with some buddies at the Kahuku Golf Course in 1997. "Just messing around," he says. Then his father, Roger, who first took Brian golfing when his son was 8, encouraged him to pick it up again.
"I thought, maybe I should try," Plouffe said. He began going to the practice range and hitting balls in earnest, bucket after bucket. It wasn't easy at first, especially trying to get that timing down. It is hard with just one arm. Try it some time.
"It was a little hard, but I just stuck with it, trying to get a swing going. After a year, I could hit the ball," he said.
It was all self-taught, a process of trial and error. Plouffe began by shooting in the 100s two years ago. Then breaking 100 less than a year later. Playing a lot with his dad at 'Ewa Villages, he began shooting in the 90s. Last year, he felt confident enough to compete in the Army Open. He missed the cut but knew his game was getting there.
"I worked a lot on my game in the last year," said Plouffe, who is now a 9-handicapper. "And I feel I can get better."
He works as a cart attendant at the Mililani Golf Club. He also had worked part-time at the Kalakaua Golf Course in Schofield Barracks where he shot his career low round — a 3-under-par 69 — a month ago.
Where once Roger Plouffe used to give his son a lot of strokes a side, the tables have turned. "Now he kicks my butt all the time," said the proud father.
A lean 6-footer, Plouffe thinks his height enables him to put a long arc on his swing, enabling him to hit longer drives than the average golfer. But he thinks the best part of his game is chipping and putting.
"That's where I make up most of my strokes," he said.
"Golf's more of a challenge for me. I want to try and get as good as I can get and see how far I can go," Plouffe said.
He needn't worry about any future success. Plouffe already has accomplished more than anyone — family and friends included — could ever have imagined.
Golf, everyone?
No one can come up with a definitive number as to how many golfers there are in the state of Hawai'i. But it is safe to say at least one out of 10 residents on O'ahu play the game.
How so? According to Dave Mills, the city's director of golf, there are 116,798 residents who have registered for photo ID cards to play at the six Oahu municipal courses — Ala Wai, Pali, 'Ewa Villages, Makalena, West Loch and Kahuku.
Mills still chuckles whenever he recalls the time he was told by the Denver company that installed the registration system that Honolulu would get around 12,000 to 18,000 card holders. That estimate was based on Los Angeles, which has 35,000 card holders for its 13 public courses.
Talk about being off (data) base.
If nothing else, the 116,798 figure only shows you how popular golf is in Hawai'i. Especially at the Ala Wai, the most played of the more than 80 golf courses throughout the state.
Bill Kwon can be reached at bkwon@aloha.net.
Konishiki tourney set for Sunday
The Bon Ami Konishiki golf tournament will take place Sunday at the Ko Olina Resort and Marina Golf Club.
In addition to former sumotori Konishiki, Benny Agbayani of the New York Mets, former major league pitcher Sid Fernandez, chef Sam Choy, actor Cary Hiroyuki Tagawa and other local celebrities will participate in the tournament.
Entries will be accepted through tomorrow. The cost is $250 per person, with $95 being tax deductible. Corporate sponsorships are also still available at two levels: yokozuna ($2,500) and ozeki ($1,000).
The tournament will be a scramble format with a shotgun start at 11 a.m. Check-in is 10 a.m.
All proceeds from the tournament will go to the Konishiki Kids Foundation.
The foundation, formed in 1996, is a non-profit organization that promotes openness and cultural understanding between the United States and Japan.
| Golf notices |
Nov. 2 — 20th Annual Catholic Charities Golf Classic. At Pearl Country Club. 12:30 p.m. shotgun start. Format: Four-person scramble. Fee: $150 per golfer. Forty teams maximum. Information: 546-2277.
Nov. 16 — Variety School of Hawai‘i Invitational Fundraising Golf Tournament. At Ko Olina Golf Club. Check-in at 9:30 a.m., shotgun start at 11 a.m. Format: Three-person scramble. Fee: $125 per golfer. Information: Alan Y. Sunio or Claire Nakamura, 528-7388 or 732-2835. |
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