After three years, Jack has finally gotten Stephanie and Michelle to do an episode about sports. And not just any sport, but golf. In this episode we sit down with Josh Basile, Andrew Mitchell, and Kate Strickland to talk about AdapTee Golf, what it means to reclaim sports as a person with a disability, and how to play the ninth hole at Sligo Creek Golf Course.

Learn more about AdapTee Golf at: https://adapteegolf.com/

Learn more about Determined2Heal, Josh’s foundation focused on people with spinal cord injuries at: https://www.determined2heal.org/

Full transcript of this episode available at: https://www.ndrn.org/resource/ndr-june25/

Jack Rosen:

So either of you watched the US Open this weekend?

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

No.

Michelle Bishop:

I did not.

Jack Rosen:

Well, that is an anticlimactic way to kick off this one then. For those who are interested in golf, J.J. Spaun won. It was his first major win. He sunk the putt on the last hole to be the only person over or under par at Oakmont. So that was very cool. And our guests on this episode would be interested in that and maybe no one else. Hopefully at least two of our listeners.

Michelle Bishop:

Jack, you open this episode talking about a golf tournament, you know full and well me and Stephanie don’t know anything about golf.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

Where’s the cricket sound? I-

Jack Rosen:

But I guess you guys are about to learn quite a bit about golf, specifically adaptive golf.

Michelle Bishop:

That’s cool. We’re going to do the intro to the whole episode where we introduce ourselves or Jack is going like hella rogue today. Stephanie, how do you feel about this?

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

Yeah, I’m over here like, “Wait a second. We’re not good at” … I do appreciate the confidence in us, though.

Michelle Bishop:

I … Yeah, [inaudible 00:01:08 ] the episode.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

What else are you going to do?

Michelle Bishop:

Don’t I kick off the episodes?

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

But this is probably the cold open.

Michelle Bishop:

You miss one or two episodes that get recorded when you’re traveling or so sue me that time my car broke down and now Jack’s just in here taking over the whole operation.

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

Man.

Michelle Bishop:

Wait, is this a cold open?

Stephanie Flynt McEben:

I figured it … I don’t know because we know nothing about golf, so I figured that Jack was just like … I don’t know.

Michelle Bishop:

Why don’t we ever talk before we record an episode? We could put some level of planning into this. I mean, obviously not for this episode, it’s too late now.

Well, Jack, I have to say as our pro host extraordinaire that I think this month’s episode, this topic is truly your jam more than me or Stephanie will ever comprehend. So I think you have to tell the people what this episode is about this month.

Jack Rosen:

I’m excited. I finally did it. I finally got us to do a sports podcast. It has been years in the making and I am so excited that we got to do it for this sport, my favorite one, golf. Today, we have on Andrew Mitchell and Josh Basile and Kate Strickland with AdapTee Golf. They are here today to talk about this innovative, exciting way of playing golf for those who are physically unable to swing a golf club. Josh and Andrew invented it, which is pretty cool, and I am so excited to have them on today. I will let them introduce themselves. Josh, do you want to kick us off?

Josh Basile:

Absolutely, Jack. And Michelle, it’s so great to be here today. So my journey into paralysis started out two decades ago. I was on a family vacation at the beach in Delaware and turned my back to a wave. Wave picked me up and slammed me head first against the ocean floor. As an 18-year-old, I heard a loud crack and it was my fifth cervical vertebra bursting. And since then, I’ve been paralyzed below my shoulders. I was first on a ventilator, I was able to wean off that, and then was able to go through the different hospital systems and found my way home after about three months of hospitals. And when I did return home, even before my injury, when I was … Actually, the moment after my injury when I was pulled onto the beach, I remember my dad running down to the beach, my friends got him, and he looked at me and I was like, “Dad, what about our tea time tomorrow?” It was something that I was looking forward to all summer long just to be able to play with my dad. And he’s like, “Josh, we’re not going to be able to make this one.” But when I did return home, I always just had a dream of the game of golf and being able to play again, but physically, I couldn’t.

So that’s just a little bit about me. Or the other thing I would share is I started a nonprofit and went through the vocational system in my state of Maryland, and ended up going from community college to undergrad to law school, and now I’m a practicing attorney for the last 13 years. So that’s a little bit about me and I’ll throw it over to Andrew.

Andrew Mitchell:

Hi, Jack, Michelle, esteemed audience. Thanks for having me today. So Josh and I have been friends since I think fourth grade, and Josh beat me up on the tennis court and our lives went different directions and we reconnected with each other while we were taking a few classes at a local community college and we both connected over poker and golf. So I was on the slingshot with Josh, I don’t know, starting, what would you say, Josh, like 12 years ago maybe was the first time I ever did it with you.

Josh Basile:

12, 15 years ago was when this all started up.

Andrew Mitchell:

Yeah, something in that range. So we stayed friends and got on the golf course maybe two or three times a year, and I was in between degrees at UMBC and Josh needed a little help with daytime caregiving. I decided to help out for just a few weeks, and then a few weeks turned into March 14th, 2020, and I was very lucky to have a job. So I just decided, “Okay, I’m going to take everything I can learn from someone who excels in his field, and I’m going to take everything I can learn about caregiving and just see what I can make of this.” And in that experience, we found that golf was one of the only things we could do that was safe during the lockdown. So we had such a good time golfing. We came across a piece of equipment that Rick Shiels had done a video on, the Swingless Golf Club, and that was the final piece of the puzzle to get us starting from the tee box with everybody else and had an incredible time putting all those pieces together. Josh’s invention, the pendulum putter, his way that he was able to put the slingshot together with all the degrees and the degrees that we use on the pendulum putter, degrees, power, et cetera.

And then the Swingless Club, it was such a good experience being able to get out there and play and sharpen Josh’s skill with the game that we collectively we’re chewing on this dream of how do we bring this to the rest of the country because there was just no way that we were going to be the only ones enjoying it the way that we were. So we applied for a grant from the Craig Neilsen Foundation last year. So 2024, around April, we got the confirmation that we got the grant. I want to say was it late August last year?

Josh Basile:

Yeah, it was during the Adventurous weekend. We were bringing 50 families to an annual event that we do in Virginia Beach. So it was mid-August, I could tell you the date.

Andrew Mitchell:

Yeah. And so I got the news when Josh invited me down to just put on a clinic with the folks on the Adventurous weekend and changed my life. So here we go. This is what I do now and I’m trying to build awareness for the program. I’m taking folks out on the course. I’m hosting events with Josh, and you’ll meet our other guest on the podcast here, Kate Strickland. She’s one of our fiercest competitors in the program. And this has just been a dream. It’s a dream come true to be able to spend my life helping out the disability community, the mobility disability community, and to be able to permanently grow the game of golf.