With wife's nudge, Missouri man who had leg amputated is a top-ranked player in adaptive golf

ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - At four-years-old, Carter Arey had his foot amputated, and he grew up playing competitive wheelchair basketball

Later on in life, Arey's wife introduced him to golf. Now, the Columbia, Missouri, native is a top ranked player in the world of adaptive golf.

"I was done with basketball, done with sports and after I was retired from that, I kind of put sports to the side," said Arey on Total Information A.M. "It was actually on the Golf Channel and there was the U.S. Adaptive Open was on T.V. and me and my wife just look at each other, watched and was like 'hey these guys they have prosthetic legs and they're on Golf Channel what is that?'"

"We start googling it and Laura, my wife, who was a college golfer and lifetime golfer was like 'hey let's go for it, do you want to learn? do you want to make a run at this?'"

Arey would begin to step in the world of adaptive golf in the winter of 2021, and with the help of his wife Laura, who has now become his coach and caddie, he has climbed up the golf ranking, becoming No. 80 in the world rankings in adaptive golf in such a short amount of time.

"We have two kids, we have full-time jobs, Laura runs her own business. After those two kids go down, around 8:30 p.m. every night for months straight, I would run over and practice on my father-in-law simulator and try to play catch up, fine tune stuff," said Arey. "I would come home with the notes, what I was doing, what was going on and hear what she had to say and guide me in a certain way that I would work on the next night."

"She's not the type to push, she's the type to encourage. I'm the one that kinds of pushes myself to make the long hours work."

Arey also credited Shriners Children’s Hospital with helping him develop the confidence he would need to become an elite adaptive golfer. Arey and his parents would frequently make trips from Columbia to St. Louis where he would have almost a dozen surgeries at Shriners.

"You walk in, you're a part of the family," said Arey. "When you come out of surgery, you are met with the happiest humans, giving you everything in the world you can ask for."

"The atmosphere they have built is super special."