The PGA Tour is back in North Texas this week where the Charles Schwab Challenge at Colonial Country Club in Fort Worth is providing life-changing opportunities for American heroes.
Golf can provide life lessons and opportunities and can also be therapeutic.
“In the short time I’ve been playing golf, I’ve been blessed to meet some of the best people in the world,” said John Goudie. “I’m blessed to have the life I have.”
The Charles Schwab Challenge is one of a handful of PGA Tour events that collaborate with the On Course Foundation, an organization that supports the recovery of wounded veterans and military personnel by using the game of golf and teaching them about careers involving the sport.
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“They get to be inside the ropes. They get to work the event and different parts of the event, in hopes of inspiring them to see the opportunities that are out there,” said Goudie.
Needed inspiration John Goudie knows well, from personal experience as a wounded veteran.
“Long story short, I had gotten hurt in 2012,” said Goudie. “A gunshot resulting in the loss of my left leg, full use of my right arm, and then multiple injuries to the body on top of your typical PTSD.”
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The On Course program helped Goudie get back on track. So much so that he’s now made a career of it as the foundation’s national programs coordinator.
“I focused on golf, went to school to get my degree in golf, and now work in the golf industry,” Goudie said. “I followed the program how it’s designed, and it’s provided me a whole new life and outlook in general.”
Now Goudie is helping other wounded veterans experience that same type of life-altering opportunity, using the game of golf, and a PGA Tour stop in Fort Worth, to learn life lessons with a therapeutic program that can improve their future after they sacrificed so much.
“It’s a lot of the same virtues we looked for and embraced in our time in the military,” Goudie said.
The collaboration between the On Course Foundation and the Charles Schwab Challenge will offer training to more than 10 wounded veterans in Fort Worth this weekend, ranging from on-course work to event planning – all focused on providing future career opportunities involving the game of golf.
