as “Unredeemable” and shuttled off to a mental institution for the rest of his life. I can’t think of a more moving story of faith, redemption, and gratitude than Alex Fourie’s incredible journey to wholeness. He is the top-ranked, onearmed golfer in America, according to the U.S. Adaptive Golf Alliance (USAGA), and the new head golf professional at an outstanding club in North Carolina that’s focused on making golf accessible to all. I called on Alex in his new post as head pro at The Five-Hundred Club in Statesville, North Carolina. Eighteen months ago, the semiprivate club, formerly known as the Larkin Community Country Club, was purchased My friend Mark Kehl, who runs a terrific organization called Autism Northwest in Thunder Bay, Ontario, sent me a 2023 awardwinning Golf Channel documentary about an extraordinary young man named Alex Fourie. Watch the full Golf Channel video HERE. Alex was born without a right arm near Chernobyl in 1992, just six years after the largest nuclear power plant disaster in history poisoned the region’s air and water supply, which passed through his pregnant birth mom causing Alex to be born without a right arm and a cleft lip and palate that would eventually require 22 surgeries. His parents gave up custody of Alex to the state, which placed him in orphanages for nearly seven years until he was adopted by a South African couple in Alabama through an improbable – dare I say miraculous -- series of incredible connections before he reached his seventh birthday, the age at which, under Ukrainian law, he would have been classified Saved By Golf & The Love of God By James Dodson American Golf Journal
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