{"id":692,"date":"2011-10-12T10:00:48","date_gmt":"2011-10-12T10:00:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/americainuniform\/?p=692"},"modified":"2011-09-16T22:27:44","modified_gmt":"2011-09-16T22:27:44","slug":"thank-you-ping","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/10\/thank-you-ping.html","title":{"rendered":"THANK YOU, PING"},"content":{"rendered":"

All golfers and all Americans should be aware of this this program sponsored by Ping.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>On Monday, I played the Disney, Lake Buena Vista course.\u00a0 As usual the starters matched me with three other players.\u00a0 After a few holes we began to get to know each other a bit.\u00a0 One fellow was rather young and had his wife riding along in the golf cart with him.\u00a0 I noticed that his golf bag had his name on it and after closer inspection, it also said “wounded war veterans”.\u00a0 When I had my first chance to chat with him I asked him about the bag.\u00a0 His response was simply that it was a gift.\u00a0 I then asked if he was wounded and he said yes.\u00a0 When I asked more about his injury, his response was “I’d rather not talk about it, sir”.<\/p>\n

Over a few holes I learned that he had spent the last 15 months in an army rehabilitation hospital in San Antonio Texas.\u00a0 His wife moved there to be with him and he was released from the hospital in September.\u00a0 He was a rather quiet fellow; however, he did say that he wanted to get good at golf.\u00a0 We had a nice round and as we became a bit more familiar I asked him about the a brand new set of Ping woods and irons he was playing.\u00a0 Some looked like they had never been hit.\u00a0 His response was simple.\u00a0 He said that this round was the first full round he had played with these clubs.<\/p>\n

Later in the round he told me the following.\u00a0 As part of the discharge process from the rehabilitation hospital, Ping comes in and provides three days of golf instruction, followed by club fitting.\u00a0 Upon discharge from the hospital, Ping gives each of the discharged veterans, generally about 40 soldiers, a brand new set of custom fitted clubs along with the impressive golf bags.<\/p>\n

The fellow I met was named Ben Woods and he looked me in the eye and said that being fitted for those clubs was one of the best things that ever happened to him and he was determined to learn to play golf well enough to deserve the gift Ping had given him.\u00a0 Ben is now out of the service, medically discharged just a month ago.\u00a0 He is as fine a young man as you would ever want to meet.<\/p>\n

Ping has the good judgment not to advertise this program.\u00a0 God Bless America and the game of golf.<\/p>\n

Submitted by Thomas L. Bratcher, Ph.D.<\/p>\n

\n

Loyal Subscribers!\u00a0 We need some help.\u00a0 The purpose of our “Heart” section is to publish stories of the experiences, contributions and sacrifices of our military (Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines and Coast Guard) and public service personnel (police officers, fire fighters, EMS, merchant marines and others in the public sector) as well as stories of their families.\u00a0 Please search your memory and computer for a few and\u00a0send them to Bill\u00a0(CPT Otis) O’Quin at boquin@ix.netcom.com<\/a><\/strong> for possible publication. \u00a0Thanks!<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Important links for updated military\/defense information:
\nThe Daily News Briefing<\/a><\/strong>:<\/a> Today’s News for the U.S. Military, their families and friends.
\n The Military Trivia Challenge:<\/a><\/strong> Register and test your knowledge about military history.
\n U.S. Department of Defense:<\/a><\/strong> Military Defense News.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

All golfers and all Americans should be aware of this this program sponsored by Ping. On Monday, I played the Disney, Lake Buena Vista course.\u00a0 As usual the starters matched me with three other players.\u00a0 After a few holes we began to get to know each other a bit.\u00a0 One fellow was rather young and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":442,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-interesting-stories"],"yoast_head":"\nTHANK YOU, PING - America in Uniform<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/americainuniform\/2011\/10\/thank-you-ping.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"THANK YOU, PING - America in Uniform\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"All golfers and all Americans should be aware of this this program sponsored by Ping. 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