A handicap no longer
When he came back from the military missing a leg, Donny Alston hid out from the world. Then his mom got him to swing his old golf clubs. And the game brought him back into the world.
By KELLIE DIXON
Published August 29, 2007
NEW PORT RICHEY -- The question - What's your handicap? - was innocent enough, but Donny Alston didn't miss a beat. "You mean besides my one leg?" the 44-year-old asked with a laugh.
It's a question Alston hears quite a bit. After all he usually plays at Fox Hollow Golf Club several times a week. And it's a question the good-natured Tampa native often answers the same way. Sometimes people laugh. Sometimes "they look terrified," Alston said. "They don't know what to say."
Alston's handicap on the course is a 6 - which means he shoots in the low to mid 70s routinely - and his humor about his amputation has helped him persevere with the game. Handling his amputated left leg hasn't been easy, but Alston isn't ashamed of it or depressed by it.
When he plays golf at Fox Hollow Golf Club, he wears shorts. He rotates through five decorated prosthesis - one decorated with skull and cross bones; another has flames.
The 44-year-old Gasparilla fan jokes he's the ultimate pirate.
But roughly 25 years ago, Alston felt little reason to smile.
The talented Tampa golfer dismissed potential scholarship help to schools like Florida and LSU to serve in the Army.
Alston, the eldest child in his family, wanted to help rescue kidnapped Americans overseas.
He enlisted much to the disdain of his parents who urged him to go to school.
"I'm probably more of a patriot than I am a golfer so I didn't think much of giving up some golf," Alston said.
Only the mission was rerouted.
And about 10 days before he was to end his tour of duty, he irreparably damaged his leg during a training exercise.
Alston, who said he couldn't get into specifics of the incident, said the doctors' efforts to save the leg nearly cost him his life.
That was 1983. Alston left the VA Medical Center in Tampa about a year later 82 pounds lighter, on crutches and with a bad case of depression.
He rented a cramped apartment in Tampa and hid out for about six months.
Finally, he agreed to meet his mom for lunch at a local golf course.
She surprised him by having his golf clubs in the trunk of the car.
He initially resisted when his mom urged him to try and hit a few.
"I took a few balls and went out there, stood on one leg and tried it," Alston said. "Next thing you know I was back into it."
He got a temporary leg from the VA.
He taught himself balance and how to shift his weight even though he couldn't feel it in his left foot.
There were a lot of blisters and a lot of blood. Still are.
But his prosthetic has advanced from the wooden laceup he got 20 years ago to the fancier, more form-fitting one today.
His attitude has changed.
He isn't angry anymore. He's thankful, and although he does work at Fox Hollow Golf Club, he treats the sport as a game.
"Before, it was a job," Alston said.
"It was work. It wasn't fun. And now, it's something that I really enjoy in my life."
Contact Kellie Dixon at kdixon@sptimes.com or (352) 544-9480.