FALMOUTH, Maine (NEWS CENTER Maine) -- Last year was the first time that the Maine Amputee Open was held and organizers did it again this summer.
From the first swing of the club at the golf tournament, Louis Namm's golf game was somewhat representative of the first time he tried playing the sport. Not great at first, but then improvement. He lost his entire right leg and half of his left leg while serving in Vietnam in 1969. New things didn't come easily after that and when a friend suggested he try golf he laughed at the idea, but then he gave it a shot.
"So he brought a couple clubs over and showed me what to do and the next thing I'm hitting golf balls and I was hooked," said Namm. "The main thing about that was if I could do this what else could I do that I hadn't tried. It's like starting a whole new page as far as challenges are concerned."
21 golfers signed up for the tournament held at the Falmouth Country Club. Both able bodied and amputees who get the chance to spend time with other golfers who understand what it's like to swing a club while standing on metal. Founder of the Amputee Association of Maine, John LeMieux, started the golf tournament last year. He didn't want to be the only person on the greens with a story of limb loss.
"I went in for a 90 minute operation to have a benign cist to be taken out of my leg," said LeMieux. "When I woke up from the surgery my wife's face was white because the doctor had come out and told her the good news is we didn't have to take his leg, the bad news is he has cancer."
Doctors performed surgery to remove the cancer, but months later it spread and they had to take LeMieux's left leg. He kept his hobby of golf and now does what he can to offer it to other amputees. Like Namm who now teaches golf in his home state of New Jersey to rehab patients who have lost a limb. A rewarding experience each and every time.
"We put the ball down and we said start swinging and the first time he hit that ball and it got up and it just sailed out there. He looked up at me with tears in his eyes," said Namm. "He was just so happy and it was an amazing effect."
The winners of the tournament were Bob Dean in the amputee category with a score of 174 and Reggie Grant in the able bodied category with a score of 159.