By: Justin Lafleur, Lehigh Sports Communications
Lehigh head women's golf coach Mary Kate Lynch first met Adam Benza at the Steel Club in Hellertown. That friendship led Lynch to ask Benza if he'd be interested in becoming her assistant coach.
The answer was an easy yes.
"I was a little nervous about how the girls would take onto me," he said. "But they're super. MK welcomed me and talked me up to them, which helped me feel comfortable."
Benza and Lynch will be together in a different setting this week. Beginning Monday, Benza will play at the U.S. Adaptive Open at Pinehurst Resort and Country Club in North Carolina – with Lynch as his caddy.
"I'm excited to be along for the ride," said Lynch. "Regardless of the outcome, it's going to be an incredibly inspiring experience and I'm so excited to have a front-row seat."
Benza's journey has touched the lives of so many. He lost his leg at the age of nine, but hasn't let that get in his way.
"With it happening at such a young age, this is my normal," he said. "I don't have an issue doing anything, so I really don't think of it as a setback.
"It's not that you can't do it… it's just doing things differently."
Benza has been an inspiration for others, even if he doesn't realize it.
Now, he has another chance to inspire, in perhaps his biggest event to date (or at least the one with the most eyeballs).
It's the inaugural USGA-run event that will showcase the world's best golfers with disabilities.
In many ways, the event for Benza is nothing new – as he's taken part in countless golf events over the years, both as a player and organizer – but it's especially significant since the U.S. Adaptive Open is run by the United States Golf Association.
"It takes it to a different level," said Benza. "Does it make it a little more nerve-racking? Yeah. Am I pretty much giving up on life except to go play golf every day? Yup.
It changes a lot, just because you want to perform well on that kind of stage."
From a young age, golf has been an important part of Benza's life.
"I played practically every sport growing up, but I've been playing golf since I was two or three years old," he said. "My dad and grandfather got me into it. Then it eventually turned into an outlet as well."
It became an outlet after Benza lost his leg.
The backstory started innocently enough. Playing hockey with his brother in the garage, Adam was hit in the shin.
"I was complaining to my parents for a while," he said. "Two weeks later, we were doing the same thing – he hit me in the same exact spot – and it was so much worse. We went to a sports medicine place up on Schoenersville Road, did an X-Ray and found I had a tumor in that leg."
The finding led Benza to have a bone salvage procedure (to save the leg).
"The cancer was gone; everything was good; I was never sick," he said. "But one day, I woke up with a really bad fever, went into the hospital and they were doing scans.
"A screw they attached the bone with got infected."
What were the next steps? They would have to use an immobilizer.
"I actually have so many tattoos, but am terrified of needles," said Benza. "I'm like nope, no way, because I'd have to look at these needles every day. They gave me another option that I took, to have it removed."
Fast forward many years. When Benza was 30, he suffered a stroke while preparing for the Lehigh Valley Amateur held every September in Wilson, Pa.
"I was going to putt and just passed out," he said. "I stood up and said a few choice words, which didn't exactly come out correctly, and I was like oh man, I know what this is.
"Thankfully, my mom was a speech pathologist, so I called her up. She's like oh my God, you're seriously having a stroke."
Benza was in the hospital for a week and every day, he tried to leave.
"They wouldn't let me leave," he said. "I was trying to go play in that tournament."
Benza did not play in that Lehigh Valley Amateur, but has made his mark in many other events.
For the most part, Benza has fully recovered, but there are some remnant symptoms.
"I didn't notice it at first and then as the years go by, I become more and more aware of short-term memory issues," he said.
Memory issues can be bad, but in some ways good, in golf.
"If you sit there and hit a good shot, you're like what did I just do? When you get over to the next hole, you're asking yourself what just happened," said Benza. "But if I hit a bad shot, not remembering what I just did [would help me move on from it]."
Golf continues to be a huge part of Benza's life. He is classified as an amateur player, but has made the sport of golf his career.
One of the biggest ways he has done that is through his nonprofit, Moving Foreward, run by him and three other people. With Benza attending Penn State for Professional Golf Management, he understands the teaching philosophy of golf and uses that knowledge to grow the sport for future generations, specializing in instructing persons with disabilities.
"We work with rehab facilities and prosthetic companies, along with hospitals, to run golf clinics to get their patients out," he said. "It shows them that we're all different, but we can all do the same thing, and do it very well."
Lynch can attest.
"As a golfer, Adam is an unbelievable player with an even better understanding of the game," she said. "When playing with him, it's so easy to forget that he has a disability. It's incredible to watch him play golf."
That's exactly what Lynch will get to do at Pinehurst.
"We both have the same mentality of how to play golf," said Benza. "Having somebody like that caddy for you really makes you feel comfortable, knowing she's pretty much going to agree with the shot you want to hit."
Beginning Monday, Benza will be one of 96 players on the course at Pinehurst. No matter the outcome, he represents something greater.
"Adam has touched the lives of so many people through his inspiring journey," said Lynch. "As a coach, it's easy for him to put things into perspective for the team and remind them it's only golf and there are much harder things in life than one bad round.
"I know the spotlight of this event is going to help him inspire so many more people."
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Benza's Story Inspires Many - Lehigh University Athletics
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