Shinnecock Hills Golf Club played host to the second US Open. This was in 1896, five years after the club was founded. Since then, four more Opens have been contested at the historic club in Southampton, NY. So, too, is a Walker Cup and three other USGA national championships.
But over two days last month, a less heralded event took place in Shinnecock, one that pitted 13 wounded military veterans from the US against their 13 counterparts from the UK. The occasion was the 12th game of the Simpson Cup, a Ryder Cup-Competition style in which camaraderie is as important as competition.
“There’s no separation between the countries,” said U.S. Marine Sergeant (Ret.) Nick Kimmel, who played on the U.S. team. “If you chose to stand up and raise your hand and serve your country, you have that natural inner connection.”
While Kimmel was deployed to Afghanistan in 2011, he stepped on an improvised explosive device and was knocked unconscious. Days later, when he woke up at Walter Reed National Medical Center in Bethesda, Md., Kimmel learned he had lost his left arm and both legs.
During his recovery, he discovered the healing powers of golf.
At the Simpson Cup, camaraderie is as important as competition.
“Probably one of the best things I’ve come across for physical and mental rehabilitation,” he said. “It’s the best way for me to just turn it all off and shut out all the noise and junk.
“For four hours, it’s just me and the golf ball on the golf course.”
What the game means to Kimmel and his fellow veterans is writ large in the Simpson Cup, which has become a stage for some of the best in the world. adaptive players.
Founded in 2012 by John Simpson, a former International Management Group executive who suffered complications from childhood polio, the event alternates annually between host countries in the UK and the US and beyond any sites: TPC Sawgrass, Royal Lytham & St Annes, Congress, Royal St. George’s, Baltusrol (to name just a few), and earlier this fall…Shinnecock Hills.
The USA held a two-point lead after the first day of four-ball play, but with 13 points still up for grabs in the second day’s singles, Great Britain was still very much in contention.
GOLF.com video producer Connor Federico was on hand to chronicle the thrilling finish. You can watch the action in the video above.
