PHOTO BY DANIEL LIPPITT

present. . .

CLASSICAL 105.1 FM

5th Annual
Summer Concert Series

This week
at the Trowbridge
enjoy the sounds of the

Ken Miller of Inkster swings a club. This was his first time back on the greens since
he had a stroke.

Taking Another Swing

Emily Austin Quartet
Tuesday, July 23rd

A Sinai program offers the physically challenged a
chance to recapture their golf game.

DEBBIE WALLIS LANDAU STAFF WRITER

All concerts will begin at 2:00 pm

24111 Civic Center Drive Southfield, MI 48034

For more information please call The Conceirge at

(810) 352-0208

R MULLER, M.D., FAAP
SUNITA SARIN, M.D.

Are Pieaseal to Announce
Association Of
IAN H. FOX, D.O.

1660 Wooctward Avenue, Suite 10.3
loonifield, MI 48304
(810) 644-8900

(5.

I

ast year, Jodi Rodabaugh
played in a regular golf
league and participated in
other sports. She was an
active, nonsmoking 39-year-old
with low blood pressure and a
busy life.
Then, without warning or
reason, a stroke took away most
of her peripheral vision and the
use of one arm. Her golf game
suddenly looked questionable at
best.
Then, her physical therapists
gave her a brochure detailing
Sinai Hospital's "Fairway to In-
dependence" golf program for
physically challenged people,
and she saw an opportunity to .
retrieve what she thought she
had lost.
"I thought, 'Why not?" she
said. "Golf was something I had
enjoyed before. I was told that
even though I didn't have use of
my left arm, adaptive tech-
niques would allow me to still
play the game. If nothing else, I
could just get out on a driving
range again."
Ms. Rodabaugh, a resident of
Dundee, is one of five Michigan
residents who took the class of-
fered by Sinai Hospital's physi-
cal medicine and rehabilitation
department to learn adaptive
golf techniques. The class is or-
ganized by the National Golf
Amputees Association (NAGA).
Recreational therapist Renee
Hill and occupational therapist
Elaine South first took a course
called "First Swing" that was de-
veloped by an NAGA member

and then developed their own
three-session instructional
workshop and fairway scram-
ble. This is the third consecutive
year they have offered "Fairway
to Independence."
"We saw a real need to offer
a recreational outlet to people
who had sustained some physi-
cal injury or permanent dis-
ability from an accident or
illness," Ms. South said. "We
wanted to demonstrate that
even if a person can't play golf
like he or she could if able-bod-
ied, he or she can still play the
game. We felt this could be a sig-
nificant rehab effort, as well as
a way for people to feel good
about what they can do."
The first session was held at
the end of May at the Sinai
Health Center in West Bloom-
field. There, the participants
learned adaptive golf techniques
and tried out the equipment de-
signed to assist them.
The therapists held the next
two sessions at Southfield's
Beechwood Golf Course, where
local golf pro Dan Sauer got
everybody swinging on the
green.
"We walked them through
putting and chipping practice,
driving-range practice and a
round of scramble golf," Mr.
Sauer said. "I always hit the ball
with one arm, because that's
how most of the participants
need to swing."
Mr. Sauer,.who has taught
golf for 18 years, said he devel-
oped his current adaptive tech-