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Tuesday, February 11, 2025

Rocky Bleier’s story is a testament to how Myrtle Beach’s PGA HOPE is saving vets’ lives through golf

The program through Project Golf gives veterans a diversion to overcome the solemn challenges they face after military service

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Rocky Bleier had his ambition to be an NFL football player to lift him from the solemn challenges of returning to civilian life in 1970 after suffering injuries to both legs and seeing Army comrades die in the rice fields of Vietnam.

Bleier was shot in the left leg and had grenade shrapnel in his right leg – injuries that were supposed to end his hopes of ever playing football again.

Yet Bleier won four Super Bowls with the Pittsburgh Steelers and teamed with fullback Franco Harris in 1976 to be one of just five – at the time it was just two – running back duos to each have 1,000 yards rushing in the same season.

“For me, I had a focus. I wanted to come back and play,” Bleier said Tuesday at Wachesaw Plantation. “So it was like, ‘What do I have to do to be able to do that.’ That was all on me, so that became the driving force so I wasn’t feeling sorry for myself, or being like, ‘What am I going to do?’ “

Bleier is a rare case.

Many vets, particularly those who were deployed to Afghanistan and the Middle East over the past couple decades, return wounded and/or emotionally scarred, and without a purpose.

While Bleier had his NFL aspirations, veterans on the Grand Strand have PGA HOPE among their diversions.

The program operated by the nonprofit Project Golf based at Barefoot Resort in North Myrtle Beach gives vets equipment and instruction over six or seven weeks to start, with instruction from PGA professionals who are certified in adaptive golf training, which includes giving instruction to amputees and otherwise physically challenged students.

“It makes a big difference,” said Bleier, a recreational golfer who gave an inspirational speech Tuesday in Murrells Inlet at an outing for donors and potential donors of PGA HOPE. “From my experience dealing with veterans, it’s important to be able to shift their emotions and take away from themselves, their situations, their experiences, and kind of channel it in another challenge, into something where they get some support, they have people there and other veterans to whom they can talk to, and pick up this game.”

Project Golf has programs for vets, youth – particularly those who are at risk and underprivileged – and beginners, but perhaps none of its programs are as important and impactful as PGA HOPE, which is run in conjunction with the PGA of America.

HOPE is an acronym for Helping Our Patriots Everywhere.

The widely reported suicide rate of veterans nationwide of about 22 per month reflects the challenges many veterans face after leaving the military.

“It’s an emotional factor that soldiers go through no matter what. I don’t care how well you’re trained, you’re still human,” Bleier said. “If you have to kill somebody or get shot or get wounded, whatever it might be and whatever you might see, then you have to live with that or deal with that as best as you possibly can. A lot of it is escapeism. So what they’re trying to do is give you a focus away from that. . . . It’s people taking an interest in you and giving you an opportunity. You know that somebody cares. Then it’s up to you. If you have the drive we can show you how to become better.

“And you see other veterans, it’s like a camaraderie. So it’s, ‘I’m not alone, I’m with you.’ ”

A group of veterans take part in a PGA HOPE session in 2022 hosted by Project Golf (Golf Tourism Solutions photo)

Project Golf’s PGA HOPE

Approximately 500 veterans have graduated from the PGA HOPE program based at Project Golf headquarters at Barefoot Resort since its inception in 2019.

Project Golf has an ambitious plan and schedule for PGA HOPE in 2025. It plans to have 150 veterans go through the program, with six classes of 25 each.

There are two-hour sessions weekly for six to seven weeks per class, and Project Golf wants to host at least six classes this year from February through November.

The sessions feature five adaptive golf certified instructors, so there is a 5-to-1 student-to-teacher ratio.

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The PGA of America helps fund the program, but Project Golf’s planned itinerary in 2025 far exceeds the funding that is provided, so Project Golf is trying to raise money through fundraising and donations.

“If I can get more funding, I will double up classes and take it to the south end, with a class on Tuesday and a class on Thursday, to just make that much of a bigger impact,” said Project Golf director Angel Diaz, a Navy veteran who said each class of 25 costs $7,500. “That’s where the fundraising comes in for us.

“Then we give them tee gifts after they graduate, and we’re getting them on a golf course and have to cover their golf course fees.”

Diaz said said a lot of PGA pros in the area are committed to the program, including one who drives from Pawleys Island to Barefoot each week for the sessions.

Project Golf is also trying to get a number of paramobile golf carts for partially paralyzed and amputee veterans that will be available up and down the Grand Strand. Tito’s Vodka donated one recently at a cost of $50,000 that Project Golf has at its Barefoot facility.

“I’m going to make sure adaptive golfers and veterans have paramobile golf carts on the Grand Strand so they can continue to play,” Diaz said. “Myrtle Beach isn’t adaptive golf friendly, and we’re the golf capital of the world. We don’t have one paramobile golf cart on the Grand Strand so an adaptive golfer can come out and play golf.”

Veteran and four-time Super Bowl champion with the Pittsburgh Steelers Rocky Bleier speaks at an outing in support of PGA HOPE at Wachesaw Plantation on Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2025 (Alan Blondin photo)

Hitting from the paramobile cart was a revelation for Mischelle Choinski, a retired Marine captain who has terminal cancer.

Choinski has battled cancer and other illnesses for many years that she believes can be traced to contaminated drinking water at Camp LeJeune in Jacksonville, N.C., where she was stationed.

She’s now confined to a wheelchair, and credits the ability to play golf on a paramobile cart with extending her life at least several months because of the optimism and inspiration it provided.

“What hitting that ball gave me was the feeling I can do something and I don’t have to just sit away in a bed and die, and that’s what was happening,” Choinski said. “. . . Angel put the ball down and I nailed the ball, and I just balled. I just cried, because what it represented wasn’t the ball, it was about me being able to do something that I didn’t have to ask anyone else to do. I don’t have to ask to get a glass of water or need help going to the restroom. What PGA HOPE and golf gave me was more than that white ball. I’m pretty sure it extended my life because I’m on a downward trajectory.

”Now my objective is how can I help other people understand and believe that is there, that the power is there? With my dying breath that’s where my focus is going to be, to help others be able to learn there are possibilities and what it can do for them. Belief is a powerful gift. They can get out there and play golf, but these carts are not available.”

In order to keep the program alive in the lives of the veterans post graduation, Project Golf is starting a PGA HOPE league in 2025 that will feature monthly scramble tournaments solely for the grads of the program.

“It’s a way for guys to get together once a month, play in a scramble and keep that connection,” Diaz said.

Grads can also remain involved in the program as ambassadors who will help organize and run the league events.

Diaz said there are 40,000 veterans in Horry County.

PGA HOPE has a constant pipeline of participants through the Eastern Carolina Housing Organization’s John’s Place. It’s a 41-bed facility that serves as a bridge housing program offering eligible homeless veterans a safe place with resources while working toward securing permanent housing and jobs.

“PGA HOPE is not just improving swings, it’s saving lives,” Diaz said.

Project Golf can be contacted through www.projectgolf.com or 843-390-7500.

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