In 2009 on Interstate 20 near Hickory, Mississippi, Green’s recreational vehicle, which was being driven by his brother, Bill, blew a tire, ran off the road and down an embankment, hit a tree and took the lives of his girlfriend, Jeanne, Bill, and his dog, along with mangling his right foot and leg.
Before the accident, Ken’s was called “a sad life” by journalists chronicling his rise and fall. Clinical depression, combined with gambling, divorces, drinking and financial disasters, led to him losing his fortune and his Tour card. Then came the crash, followed by the accidental overdose of his estranged 21-year-old son in 2010: it made for tough writing and tougher reading.
After the accident he was given a choice by his surgeons: amputate the lower right leg, or give up golf. Ken loves golf, lives golf. His life has been defined by golf. He opted for the amputation. The amputation left him with a possibility of playing again, but also with constant nerve pain in his stump, a problem suffered by only a small percentage of amputees.
"It’s like a tenth of the pain you get sticking wet fingers in an electric socket,” he said. "(Like) like being Tasered constantly at a low level. Sometimes I even act like I’m being Tasered."
Green is nothing if not persistent. He was determined to get his game back, to play a decent top 20 and leave the game on his own terms. Within five months after the accident he was tinkering with a new swing, one that didn’t rely on the power he used to derive from kicking off his right leg, a swing with a restricted turn with a little draw instead of the power fade he used so well in the 1980s. He might be missing a leg, but he has hands, hands that make for a magical short game.
His Ryder Cup experience (Green played in the 1989 match at The Belfry) gives him a lifetime exemption to the Senior PGA Championship, but he will have to rely on sponsor’s exemptions for regular Champions Tour events. He has an annually renewable major medical exemption, but Green does not feel he can rely on the Tour’s claims that it will open up half a dozen events a year.
In April 2012, he played in a special Champions Tour event, the Liberty Mutual Legends of Golf Tournament, a 54-hole best ball event, partnered with his long time friend, Mike Reid. The team finished 12-under. Green contributed two birdies and had become the first golfer with a prosthetic leg to compete in a tour event.
"I thought I loved the game a lot," said Reid after the round. "But I am certain that I would not have paid the price and would not have kept the dream alive that he has kept alive by virtue of his love for the game."
An operation in May 2013 reduced some of the pain in his stump, though there are still issues to be dealt with, mostly around the violent twisting that emanates from the swing itself and causes a lot of friction where stump fits to prosthesis.
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