This paralyzed invention of the player has been a game shift for adaptive players

Rockville, MD. – Anthony Netto is not a family name in Golf.

But for a player submarine, he ranks with the likes of Ely Callaway AND Karsten solheim As a pioneer figure, whose spirit has turned the game.

Netto is the truth father.

“I saw other people suffering in the ways I had,” he said. “And – without any intended purpose – I wouldn’t get it sitting.”

It was a diligent afternoon on this outskirts of Maryland about 40 minutes north of Washington, DC, and Netto was talking from a sitting position to a trail In Woodmont Country Club, where the Rounds of Practice were developing 2025 US Adaptive Open. At the near distance, one of his creations revolved in appearance.

At a glance, the vertachat looks like something you can find in a wheelchair, wheelchair, place and a steering mechanism. But it is more than a means of transport in the course. Its users depend on it to knock a ball around.

Netto first saw the need for such a thing in 1991, after the injuries he suffered while serving in the South African army left him paralyzed from the waist down. He was 33, and a lifelong golf player, after learning to play while being tied up as a child in Cape Town before he went to compete in the mini-Turne and then become a certified instructor. The game was in his blood and he was inclined to return to it. But – again, no intended work – “Steps for Children”. Netto had even wider goals in mind.

In his rehabilitation ward, Netto was surrounded by other wounded soldiers, many with similar injuries. In their sitting states, they would be destroyed by the bed. Other complications went beyond deep skin.

“Think about it, all your life, you were the harsh boy, the alpha,” Netto said. “And suddenly you are someone who has to wipe his butt. It takes a heavy fee.”

For both physical and psychological reasons, Netto knew it was important to get his group again.

“And if you are trying to remove someone from their tails and stand up, there is no better way to motivate them than placing a golf ball in front of them,” he said.

It would not be easy. In Netto’s opinion, the right technology did not exist. He would try to play golf in a wheelchair, but the wheelchairs were not very good at the bar. Attempting to swing a club from one was also devilish on the hips. In those days, some player players rely on scooter with reversible places that could grow their knights in a half -bent position. This was a good start, but Netto wanted more. He dreamed of something a player could do in a full golf stance. But how exactly would it work?

The moment of Light came when Netto visited a wounded friend lying on a mechanical hospital bed that could be raised on one side. When the bed raised the upper body of his friend, Netto noticed the machinery after him.

“I thought, that’s it,” he said. “Let’s take this to the wheels.”

Netto contacted the Danish company that made the bed and began communicating with its engineers. A year and a half later, a prototype was ready to be manufactured by a German prosthetic company. In 2000, the first product was released.

Netto marked that Paraiolfer, and billed it as a “wheelchair in the foot on foot”, though he called a cross between a scooter and a modular wheelchair, with three wheels for light maneuvering, a place that climbed completely straight, and the strips holding the lower body of the stable and safe knight.

Netto paid for the design and production from his pocket by selling actions of the military security firm he would establish. He gave free 100 free Paralyfes for free. Money was not disturbing until it became one. In 2009, Netto fell victim to financial fraud (long short history, the investment firm he used had entrusted most of his Bernie Madoff portfolio). A year later, caught for money, Netto founded the Stand Up and Play Foundation, a nonprofit dedicated to giving “as many people as the gift of standing”.

He supports that organization through corporate sponsorships, private donations, charity events and other funds. But support of this kind goes so far. Netto also runs a business, Stand Up USA, which, in addition to the walking chairs, specializes in adaptive golf therapy and accessible sports programs.

“I do whatever I can to keep this dream alive,” Netto said.

In 2023, Netto marked another milestone when co-developed the next repetition of his adaptive basket, the vertacs, which he describes as “Paralyphic in the steroid”. Easier adjustable than its predecessor, the vertasat is powered by a stronger, longer battery that can push the vehicle over the steep terrain and go 18 holes without the risk of connection. Its wheels, like those of Paralyka, can roll in greens and through bunkers without damaging them.

Paratoly is far from aging. About 700 remain in use worldwide, along with nearly 200 vertacats. The latter does not come free. Those retail for $ 29,300, though Netto is entered through his foundation whenever he can.

“I don’t want cost to keep them from the people who need them,” he said.

Married, with three adult children, Netto lives in Las Vegas but is often on the road, meeting with veterans groups and golf organizations, appearing on walks and exhibitions. At the Long Drive 2019 World Championship in Mesquite, Nev., He set a world record in the 350 -yard car chair category.

On Sunday at Woodmont Country Club, he was fresh from a Redeye and had come directly to the course. Dressed in blue jeans and a black shirt on the shaky weather, he roams the property in a motorized chair with a small front wheel that he would deceive the jury himself.

In this Adaptive Open Adaptive week, a handful of players are using his adaptive carts. As Netto approached the 9th green, one of those players approached a vertex.

Max Togisala is 21 and a native of Utah. Nearly three years ago, as a high school elder, he was six months away from the start of the Junior College with a golf scholarship when a ski accident left him paralyzed from the waist. So the goal was togisala to continue to play golf that he had brought his clubs to the hospital so that he could practice pieces of wheelchairs. Returning to the course was a tougher route. He tried to use an adaptive golf scooter.

“But I was not completely caught and couldn’t get into a full position,” Togisala said. “It was really difficult. I was thinking I didn’t want to play golf like that.” That was 2022.

Moving social media, Togisala’s mother encountered Netto and took her hands in a vertical. By the beginning of 2023, Togisala was practicing it. Less than six months later, he won the category of players sitting in 2023 US Adaptive Open in PinhurstA title he defended in 2024.

“It’s all about me,” Togisala said to get back to play. “Golf was my passion and my love before my accident. And that’s still today.”

Togisala smiled. His practice of practice ended, he was about to return to the club. Netto watched her go.

“He’s an extraordinary child and an extraordinary golf player,” Netto said. “But that is not just about the championship golf. I tell people, go out there and play with friends. Play nine holes. Do for fun. Golf saved my life, and that’s one thing I have learned. Life rotates. But it will not roll for so long if you don’t get up.”