Dennis Walters

To find out when and where Dennis will be performing, look at our Event Calendar.

If there is something you really want to do - no matter how impossible it may seem - with enough hard work and perseverance you can do it," says Dennis Walters.

He should know. Dennis is the only person paralyzed below the waist who earns a living as a professional golfer. Back in the 1970's, Dennis was fresh out of North Texas State University, which he attended on a golf scholarship. During his senior year, he finished 11 th in the United States Golf Association Amateur Championship. Dennis' goal was to become a PGA touring professional. From all appearances, he was well on his way.

To sharpen his skills, Dennis spent 1973 competing on the South African tour and in mini-tour events in the U.S. Shortly before the 1974 Tour Qualifying Event, Dennis went home to Neptune, New Jersey, for a visit and to play a few friendly rounds of golf. On July 21, 1974, he was riding a golf cart down a steep hill on a course near his house when the brakes failed. Dennis was thrown from the cart and suffered severe spinal cord damage.

At a hospital in Morristown, New Jersey, he was diagnosed as a T-12-level paraplegic and told that he would never walk again, which also made playing golf highly unlikely, to say the least. However, at age 24, Dennis was determined to prove otherwise.

After five months of rehabilitation, Dennis went home. Immediately, he began searching for ways to make playing golf practical. He tried hitting the ball from his wheelchair, but found it to be unsatisfactory. He had trouble wheeling the chair around the course and could not venture onto the greens or into bunkers. Then one day he was struck with an idea.

"Why not mount a swivel seat on a golf cart?"

Working with his father and a couple of friends, Dennis fashioned a seat that would swing away 90 degrees from a golf cart. Thanks to his design, Dennis can now get around the golf course and swing a club about as well as the next guy.

Dennis taught himself to hit sand shots and to putt one-handed while balancing himself on his crutches, and got his game to the point where he could break 80 on an average course.

He continued practicing his game, and before long, pros were asking him to conduct clinics at their local clubs.Those clinics evolved into "The Dennis Walters Golf Show". For more than 22 years, Dennis has entertained audiences across the U.S. and Canada with his unique blend of fun, instructional tips, trick shots and "can-do" philosophy.
Dennis' remarkable repertoire of shots includes sending a 225-yard plus drive straight down the middle of the fairway while blindfolded; the "slook", where one ball slices and one ball hooks; hitting a ball off the crystal of a watch without leaving a scratch; his "death-defying swing through fire" shot; and his "3 iron", which is a one-of-a-kind club Dennis uses to hit 3 perfect shots at the same time. Dennis also hits pure shots with an assortment of clubs made from a fishing pole, crutch and radiator hose. The finale to the show is his famous, rapid-fire machine gun shot. And of course, he always carries plenty of Jelly Belly samples for the spectators.
With the help of a traveling assistant, ("They do all the work - all I do is hit golf balls") and his dog Benji Hogan Walters ("He's in charge of security and crowd control"), Dennis averages 90-100 shows each year. He's done over 2,500 shows in his illustrious career, and has been the opening act for Tiger Woods at 30 of his Tiger Woods Foundation Clinics.
Dennis was awarded an honorary lifetime membership in the PGA. Only the fifth person (of eight total) to receive this honor, Dennis joins such greats as former Presidents Gerald Ford and George H.W. Bush, Gary Player, Bob Hope and PGA legal counsel Lloyd Lambert.
Read more about Dennis at his website, www.denniswalters.com.

Here's the moving tribute to Dennis that was shown at the PGA Award Ceremony: