Golfers We Like The Golf LifeT
he most engaged video ever on the PGA Tour’s Facebook
page doesn’t include Tiger Woods. Or Rory McIlroy. Or Jordan
Spieth. Or even the goofy-swinging Ho-Sung Choi. It doesn’tfeature a PGA Tour player hitting a single shot. ▶ No, its subject is
Amy Bockerstette, a 20-year-old girl hitting a 6-hybrid from 117 yards
into a bunker, and its three minutes dare you not to cry through your
j oy. ▶ Viewed across multiple channels and platforms nearly 24 million
times, Bockerstette’s par full of smiles on the 16th hole during a practice
round at the Waste Management Phoenix Open was a revelation.
Defending champion Gary
Woodland was overwhelmed by
playing partner Amy’s inspiring
performance and impressive
record, which includes two ap-
pearances in the Arizona state
high school championship and
an athletic scholarship to Para-
dise Valley Community Col-
lege, all despite having Down
Syndrome.
“I’ve had a lot of good
memories in my life, but that’s
one I’ll never forget,” Woodland
says. “To step up in front of the
crowd and to hit the shots that
she hit and make par, I never
rooted so hard.”
Viewed in another light,
Bockerstette’s performance was
more than another one of those
sweet viral videos that flicker
across social media and quickly
disappear. It was a master class
in human possibility, a teach-
able moment in the power of
positive thinking, a lesson on
how flimsy assumptions and
limits are in the face of self-
belief. Her self-talk of “I got
this” echoed Dad Joe’s gentle
reminder of “You got this,” and
she moved confidently, joyfully
from tee shot to bunker shot to
eight-foot par putt. It showed us
how easily we sometimes over-
look the obvious, that the game
might not be as complicated as
we make it.
For Amy, it was just fun.
As her father says, “People
asked me if Amy gets nervous.
My answer is, ‘Amy doesn’t get
nervous. She gets excited.’
“She absolutely savored the
moment.”
Where many are uncomfort-
able on any stage, let alone the
raucous coliseum that the TPC
Scottsdale’s 16th hole can be,
Amy “wants to be a rock star,”
says her teacher, Matt Acuff.
“She has dreamt and
thought of and pictured in her
mind and imagined that type of
stage. So to be there in front of
that huge crowd, which would
make just about anybody else
buckle, that was her element. I
can hear her saying, ‘They love
me; they’re here to see me. And I
know how to do this. I’ve hit this
shot a whole bunch of times.’
“I know some of the guys
struggling to make it out there
can get a little nutty sometimes,
a little head case-y. They could
learn some very valuable les-
sons from Amy as far as how
not to do that.”
Of course, Bockerstette’s ac-
complishments, which also go
beyond golf to dance class and
theater and high school gradu-“Amy doesn’t get nervous.She gets excited.”The Genius of Amy
A lesson in the power of optimism
by mike stachura
ation speeches, aren’t by ac-
cident. She has worked the past
five years with Acuff to go from
barely making contact to earn-
ing an athletic scholarship. It’s
been a lot of positive talk, a lot
of belief from those around her
that’s become her belief, too. It
is a gift that is the other side of
Down Syndrome.
“Individuals with Down
Syndrome use self-talk a lot,”
says Dr. Nicole Baumer, direc-
tor of the Down Syndrome
Program at Boston Children’s
Hospital. “It’s a very common
way for them to deal with diffi-
cult situations, learn new skills
and process things. Amy’s us-
ing really productive, confident
self-talk.
“They do feel pressure, and
individuals with Down Syn-
drome have to work a lot harder
than other people to achieve
similar things. But I do think
that there is this inherent level
of optimism that can really help
them in situations where they
feel that pressure.”
Watching Amy glide
through the pressure palace
makes you wonder what we’re
all so agitated about, what
purpose is served by the flood
of anxiety over tee shots on the
first tee at the company golf
outing or the member-guest
chip-off or even that five-footeron 18 when nobody’s watching.
“She’s not burdened with
self-doubt,” Joe says. “She’s
gotten a lot of positive rein-
forcement, but it’s just not that
complicated for her, and that’s
part of the genius and brilliance
that is Amy.”
Joe introduced Amy to the
game and caddies for her in
Special Olympics events, but
he asked Acuff to start teach-
ing her with the idea that golf
might be a game she could
play for the rest of her life.
Acuff, director of instruction
at Phoenix’s True North Golf
School and a noted junior
instructor, has worked exten-
sively with Amy and caddied
for her through all her high
school tournaments. He’ll tell
her before every swing, “Butt
back, chest up, hands down,
hands in front of you, small
step left, large step right, turn
back low and elbow down, and
then swing through hard to the
target.” Amy follows his lead,
gets the target and goes. That
is, of course, if she wants to.
Sometimes Amy’s focus is on
other things.
“She continues to teach me
not to sweat the small stuff,”
says Acuff, who concedes he
still wants Amy to do well be-
cause she has enough talent to
break 90 this year. But he also
knows that simply being on a
team and riding in the van to a
tournament with the other girls
is just as often what Amy loves
about golf. “I’m blessed to teach
Amy, and I hope that I have
helped Amy or been an influ-
ence on her life just a little by
comparison to how much she
has helped my life and made
me a better teacher. She lives
one shot at a time. She has a
blast. She doesn’t get upset. The
more I live from that place, the
better off I am.
“Golf is very good for Amy,
but really, Amy is very good for
golf, too.”Photograph by Patrick Driscoll may 2019 | golfdigest.com 51