FULLERTON : Cart Accident Didn’t Stop Golf Lover

Dennis Walters has about 25 trick golf shots he shows off to crowds around the country.

He can hit a ball off a wristwatch or through fire. He can hit three balls at once with a special three-headed club.

However, the most amazing trick is that Walters can play golf at all. He was paralyzed from the waist down in 1974 when a golf cart rolled over him, and doctors told him he would never play again.

“This is the one thing that I really love to do the most,” Walters said. “There was no way I was going to give up playing golf.”

He started hitting balls out of a wheelchair. Then he attached a bar stool with armrests to a golf cart so he could swivel the seat around to make a hit. Now Walters has a career as a trick shooter and tours about 80 golf courses each summer.

“I never thought I could make a career of this. But people were fascinated by seeing me play golf in a different way,” Walters said after a performance Friday at the Fullerton Municipal Golf Course.

More than 100 people showed up to watch him perform with his trick dog Mulligan.

“It was really incredible how he could only use his upper body and hit the ball so well,” said Chris Canonica, who teaches golf at the course. “A major part of golf is your lower body.”

Canonica said many disabled people come to play at the golf course, which is managed for the city by the American Golf Corp.

“There was one man who used to come out here with two artificial legs and walk the course,” Canonica said.

Walters’ demonstration coincided with a two-day seminar at the golf course for the disabled. The class was offered by Sunny Hills Orthopedic Services.

“Really what we’re trying to do is let people know that people with disabilities can enjoy the game and participate,” said Steve Harker, vice president of American Golf Corp.

“There are very, very few things that are actually impossible,” Walters said.