News

The Fightmaster Cup

Louisville, KY - (April 27. 2008) For the first time ever - and for reasons far more important than pars and birdies - the best one-armed golfers from North America will square off against their European counterparts in a Ryder Cup-format, match play competition. The event will take place September 12-13-14 at The Cardinal Club located in Simpsonville, Kentucky in Shelby County, just outside of Louisville.

While the action on the course will be fierce, participants in the inaugural Fightmaster Cup demonstrate the will and determination of those who positively respond to their individual challenges. To these golfers "handicap" is about the score.

The Louisville-based North American One-Arm Golfer Association (NAOAGA) and the United Kingdom-based Society of One-Arm Golfers will field teams comprised of 12 players and a Captain, with golfers selected by their respective organizations' competitions and through Captains' discretion.

The competition honors Louisville native Don Fightmaster, who lost his arm in an accident in 1954 while in the US Army. Fightmaster taught himself to play golf one-handed and excelled to the point where Time Magazine referred to him as "the Arnold Palmer of amputee golf." A five-time winner of the National One-Armed Amputee Golf Tournament and twice winner of the Society's International One-Armed Golf Championship, the 78-year- old Fightmaster has inspired countless numbers of young men and women with permanent disabilities to improve their lives through golf. Fighmaster also raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to benefit physically disabled youth with his charity golf tournament.

While the event stands to generate extensive local, national and international media coverage, the vision goes well beyond publicity and competition on the golf course.

"Don Fightmaster and the game of golf save my life," said Alan Gentry, one of the founders of NAOAGA and a driving force behind the Fightmaster Cup. A quality junior golfer, Gentry lost his arm as a young adult in an industrial accident and while struggling to remain consciousness informed attending medical personnel to "tell Don Fightmaster to watch out, I'm coming after him." Days later, Fightmaster showed up in Gentry's hospital room and vowed to teach him to play golf with one arm. "I had never met Don Fightmaster but had seen him play when I was a junior golfer and developed a tremendous respect for what he had accomplished. Thinking about Don helped keep me alive immediately after the accident. Later, he showed me that golf - and the game of life - can be mastered with one arm."

The Fightmaster players, with handicaps ranging from single digits to 15, will include residents of the US, Canada, five countries of the UK, Ireland and Sweden and other European countries to be determined over the next two months. Besides the competition, the teams will take part in local events, including a clinic designed to improve the service of special needs golfers. The teams are scheduled to arrive in Louisville September 8 and will depart on September 15, the day after the Fightmaster Cup.

The Fightmaster Cup is part of a series of community-wide events and activities scheduled in the weeks surrounding the 2008 Ryder Cup. The competition will be managed and operated by Louisville Events, Inc., not-for-profit organization doing business as The Cup Experience, under the direction of the Mayor's 2008 Louisville Host Committee. Both teams will be guests of the Host Committee during their stay in Kentucky.

For more information contact:

Karl Schmitt, executive director
The Cup Experience / Louisville Host Committee
(502) 262-2807 (mobile)
(502) 625-0014 (office)
karl@thecupexperience.com