Dayton Price played golf Thursday and Friday.
Incredible.
At Quito Tenis & Golf Club in Quito, Ecuador, at the KIA Open de Ecuador presentado por Diners Club, an event on the PGA Tour Americas developmental circuit, Price played. He’s there on a sponsor exemption. Should you be interested, you can find his scores by clicking here, but those aren’t important.
Maybe you’ve heard about his story. Just over four years ago, a van carrying members of the University of the Southwest golf team was struck by a truck, killing six players and a coach. Only Price and teammate Hayden Underhill survived. Price rehabbed extensively.
And there he was Thursday and Friday, playing golf among the pros.
Playing golf, period.
Incredible.
Below, you can find an interview with Price ahead of the tournament, and it has five collaborators (the PGA Tour Americas, the PGA Tour, Golf Canada, ProSports Latam and Price Strong, a website dedicated to Price). The interview is excellent, and you won’t find a better story this holiday weekend.
To help you, below the video are a few of Price’s quotes.
On the hospital
“I take them to every golf tournament that I go to. I take them with me everywhere I go. Not even golf, but in life. My teammates and my coach, they wanted to play professional golf. They wanted to further their golf careers. That opportunity was taken away from them. So I’m living all their dreams. trying to take them along with me and show them the world, show them where they should have been. First kind of thing I remember saying to my dad was, you know, where are my teammates? Where is my coach? What has happened to them? A couple of days in, you know, I was going to live. But then they came in and they said that we’re going to have to amputate your legs. My dad told them that, try anything, do anything, we’ll take him anywhere. And they tried some technology and been great ever since.”
On attending the Canadian Open in 2022 (Price is from Canada.)
“When I was in the hospital, I got so many phone calls, so many people supporting me. Got cards from the local church, kids down there, people came to see me. The parents of the kids that had passed away, them coming to see me was unbelievable. Getting out of there and getting a call from Golf Canada saying, ‘Hey, do you want to come to the Canadian Open?’ My sister, she had a countdown marker on when the Canadian Open was, and we agreed that I was going to try and make it out of there for that date, be back home so that we could go as a family. Watching [Rory McIlroy] and watching him win was, yeah, I want to get back out there, I want to play tournament golf. And at the time, I didn’t — again, like, I was nowhere near going out and playing. I couldn’t even play more than three holes at a time still. Watching him win … was really inspirational for me.”
On his first time back playing golf
“I got back, played with some friends. And playing the red tees, which is the forward tees there. And par-5, probably like 400 yards. I was maybe hitting my driver like 150 yards, just bunting it out there. Yeah, I got it out there. I think I hit a 3-wood up by the green and chipped it. Chipped it to like 25 feet and made the putt. Yeah, it was crazy because it was my first hole back. I tell everybody that, you know, it was the forward tees, Like, it wasn’t, whatever you call it, like a legit birdie from tees I should be playing. But yeah, it was — It’s so surreal to get back out there and play the game that I love, that I couldn’t play for a long time. And doing that and playing a few holes made me want to get out there that much more.”
On his teammates and coach
“The way that I think about it, obviously, like, I still think about them. And it’s hard sometimes, but they — you know, I get to play more golf. That day that we played wasn’t the greatest round that we all played. We thought we would have gone back out the next day and played, but fortunately, I did, but those opportunities were taken away from them. And, you know, they don’t get to wake up and they don’t get to see their family every day. I have the privilege of seeing my family and my friends every day and the privilege of playing competitive golf. That’s the way that I look at it, is that those opportunities were taken away from them. And what is it for me to say that, you know, for me and why did this happen to me? It could have been a lot worse. And that’s, I just kind of take them with me every day. And that’s why I wake up every morning.”