Undaunted, Lang kept his competitive fire burning as he continued playing what he calls the "more aggressive sports," after being fitted with a prosthetic. But while playing football, a bad hit tore up his right knee and forced Lang to re-evaluate his choice of sports.
"That was a pretty sad moment for me," Lang said. "I would be a liar if I said I never had depression when I lost my ability to run around and do stuff. It was really tough to take when I knew I shouldn't play football again.
"But that's when I met Jim."
That would be PGA professional Jim Estes, who convinced Lang, who had never played golf in his life, to stop by a clinic Estes was headlining. Estes, the PGA director of instruction at Olney Golf Park in Olney, Md., co-founded the innovative Salute Military Golf Association in 2007, which has served the needs of hundreds of the nation's wounded members of the armed services through golf, the majority of whom are patients at Walter Reed Medical Center. Estes, one of the country's foremost adaptive golf instructors, received the 2010 Patriot Award, given by the PGA of America to PGA professionals who personify patriotism through golf.
"That's when the tables turned," said Lang, who now can consistently break 80 on the golf course. "That's when I realized I could grow old and do something that I enjoy and would let me be competitive.Golf helps turn the tables for a soldier wounded in Iraq
