LAKEWOOD – With the sound of golf balls launching skyward off the Eagle Ridge Golf Academy lesson tee providing the soundtrack to a picture-perfect fall morning, tears welled in Tanya Gauthier’s eyes as the former West Point cadet sought perspective on the impact a uniform, a community, and now a game, have had on her journey.
“That was my dream. That was my goal. I wanted to retire from the military as a career,” Gauthier said.
But that dream was shattered by a March 27, 2009 car crash near the United States Military Academy’s New York campus, with Gauthier, in her third year, given just hours to live due to the severity of her injuries, including a collapsed lung, numerous broken bones and traumatic brain injury.
After a lengthy hospital stay, including 30 days in ICU, and nine months of daily cognitive and physical therapy, Gauthier eventually returned to West Point and graduated, but was not commissioned, receiving a medical discharge.
Now 37, the Edison resident is part of the PGA of America’s program PGA HOPE (Helping Our Patriots Everywhere), a rehabilitative golf program for veterans to enhance their physical, mental, social and emotional well-being as a therapeutic part of the rehabilitation process to help assimilate back into their communities. The 6-to-8 week instructional program includes those living with physical and cognitive challenges such as traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder and amputees.
“It really is emotional,” Gauthier said. “There are not a lot of things I can do anymore. But I can do this. And I’m happy doing this. And I am so excited doing this.”
Eagle Ridge Golf Club head pro Rylee Plitz, the program’s instructor along with her husband, fellow PGA pro Joe Murphy, was the recipient of the New Jersey PGA’s 2024 Patriot Award, given to a member “who personifies patriotism through the game of golf, and demonstrates unwavering commitment and dedication to the men and women who have valiantly served and protected the United States of America.”
“The experience has been awesome, that’s for sure,” Plitz said. “They are incredible people, so to give them our knowledge to kind of have payback to what they’ve done, what they mean to everyone, is just amazing.
“A very fulfilling class, and it is pretty cool to see their growth as individuals and as golfers now.”
On Veterans Day Plitz is taking a group of PGA HOPE students to Fiddler’s Elbow, where New Jersey PGA headquarters is located, for a graduate appreciation golf outing, playing 18 holes at the Bedminster course. There are PGA Hope programs in 15 New Jersey counties, with approximately 500 participants in 2024.
More: Golfer outrage as tee times snatched up at coveted Jersey Shore course: ‘It’s ridiculous.’
A sense of community
Growing up in Roselle, Gauthier was a track athlete at Mother Seton Regional High School in Clark. And after arriving at West Point in 2006, she became the first female ever to play intramural football at the Academy, pushing the issue after her attempts to play were rejected twice.
“I don’t remember being in the hospital after the accident but they told me I was a fighter,” she said. “Get me back to West Point…There was a report that I ripped all the tubes out of my body because I didn’t want to be there. I was fighting with nurses. Nobody wants to be down.”
Now, Gauthier, who worked for the state Department of Veterans Affairs, struggles with physical activity, suffering dizzy spells and seizures when her brain is overstimulated.
“I would run and I would end up in the hospital because I couldn’t stop, because in my mind I’m still an athlete, you’re still serving. It’s always in my heart. I will always be a soldier,” she said. “I was the first cadet to play intramural football at West Point, but I can’t do things like that anymore. But I can play golf. So if that is a sport I can do and still feel OK, that’s what I want.”
In an effort to give back, Gauthier started a non-profit called TBIncredible, helping those, including veterans, dealing with a traumatic brain injury by purchasing cameras that enable TBI survivors to express their creativity and interact with the world through thearaputic photography, forming a connection between art, healing and life.
“When I looked up golf for veterans it was because I love being part of the veteran community,” Gauthier said.
“Everyone is looking for a way to be part of a community and golf is a community now, too.”
She’s not alone, with that sense of comradery evident among her golf classmates.
“There is something special about being around other veterans that, while we may be different in many ways, are similar in our experiences during our time in the services,” said Spencer Arnold, a Point Pleasant resident who teaches subjects including trauma medicine and field tactics at For Dix.
“I left the military in 2020 so I am four years removed from when I left and there were definitely challenges, both from my experiences overseas and the challenges of getting out of the military during COVID. That made life stressful,” he said. “I’ve been a volunteer fireman in Manasquan for the last 15 years, so having that to go back to, and things like this, and working with other veterans as an instructor, it has made this transition a lot easier.”
Small gestures, big rewards
As the practice session continued before the group was to head out on the course at Eagle Ridge, Plitz looked Gauthier’s swing over as she lashed a ball out onto the range, before methodically resetting herself and doing it again.
“(Plitz) is so amazing. She has coached me and mentored me, down to even buying golf shoes,” Gauthier said. “She has been so helpful with questions, even talking to me after hours on the app. She has been super supportive and encouraging and just really awesome.”
Plitz grew up in Canada, and is the daughter of a now retired Royal Canadian Mounted Police officer.
“Tanya had never touched a club five weeks ago and now she’s hitting golf shots going to the driving range on her own. We got her a set of clubs, so it’s crazy,” Plitz said.
“A few weeks ago I simply gave her an extra glove and she had tears in her eyes. The smallest thing that we can do for her and everyone else in the class, it just means the world.”
So as Veteran’s Day honors those who served, it’s programs like PGA HOPE, invaluable year-round resources, that help make a difference in lives and families within the military community, providing support for those who gave so much.
Stephen Edelson is a USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey sports columnist who has been covering athletics in the state and at the Jersey Shore for over 35 years. Contact him at: @SteveEdelsonAPP; sedelson@gannettnj.com.
This article originally appeared on Asbury Park Press: NJ PGA Hope brings military veterans, golf professionals together
