Adaptive golfer to defend national championship

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4 Sports) – Max Togisala will have a chance to defend a national golf championship next week, but it’s one that he never dreamed he would ever play in.

Togisala was a scratch golfer at Bonneville HS, and an accomplished skier. But that all changed 2 years ago.

“I was skiing when I was eighteen years old, just February 19th,” he said. “And just a freak accident like that left me paralyzed from the waist down.”

Max decided he wanted to keep playing golf, and had to relearn a game that had been easy for him.

“To relearn how to golf, It took me, I would say, a good six months, just like to fully be confident with my my score and and having it be more consistent,” he said. “So a long time, but we made it.”

Max uses a special cart made by Verticat, which enables him to stand up and hit shots.

“So I’ve had the Verticat for over a year now, and they’re just an all ability terrain mobility device that stands up and you’re able to play golf again,” Togisala said. “And that helped me when the United States Adaptive Open for the seated category and breaking the lowest round.”

Max won that title last year at Pinehurst, NC, when he set the record with a 2 under par 70. The rules for adative golf are a little different, but this guy can play.

“For the mobility devices people, they allow them to move at six inches or like they call it, bumping the ball,” Togisala said. “And you get to bump the ball just to take a practice swing and then you can move it back to hit just it’s more convenient. And they did it for the pace of play.”

He’s even able to take his cart on the greens to putt, with no damage to the course.

“I just try not to do too many donuts and then yeah, it’s completely fine if you just drive straight on and straight off,” Togisala said.

How does a guy like you that had a golf career, skiing career kind of in front of you and then you have the accident, how do you still smile?

“I don’t know,” he said. I just look at the things I still have and not think about the stuff that I don’t have and that I can’t control. So I can just try to focus on the stuff that I can control. And that makes me happy still. So. And those things are just something that I will always look at.”

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to ABC4 Utah.