Kenny Ebalo is a motivated president, and has always pushed the Southern Nevada Golf Association with new and meaningful ideas. Now, after attending the recent U.S. Adaptive Open where Las Vegas resident Kody Conover competed, Ebalo and the SNGA are looking ahead to create local and regional adaptive tournaments in Southern Nevada. –By Brian Hurlburt, www.lasvegasgolfinsider.com
“It was really inspiring to go see what the USGA had done on a national stage with adaptive players and it was a great learning experience,” said Ebalo, a former SNGA Championship division player of the year. “I think people think of adaptive players as maybe just the extremes, but there are so many categories available that give these deserving golfers an opportunity. The U.S. Adaptive Open had 15 divisions and the whole experience was very eye-opening.”
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Conover, who gained some fame on Golf Channel by winning a Golf Channel Am Tour event, has Down Syndrome and finished 3rd in the Intellectual Impairment Division. The U.S. Adaptive Open was held at Pinehurst Resort & C.C. (Course No. 6) July 10-12, 2023. He shot rounds of 78-75-84 over the fabled course.
Earlier this year, Conover won the 2023 US Disabled Open Championship in Florida. Conover plays a lot with his father, Clifford, and carries a 5.5 handicap with the Las Vegas Golfers Association and the PGA Tour SuperStore membership. And also recently, Conover won the Hogan Flight of the U.S. Am Tour played at Boulder Creek with rounds of 74-79.
“Golf is amazing and I will keep doing it,” Conover said. “I love the competition and the people I meet makes it very special for me.”
Ebalo is inspired by the likes of Conover and he and the SNGA team have begun to formulate a plan to organize adaptive events on a local level and then also a potential partnership with surrounding golf associations to create regional tournaments.
“I went there to learn about how they are running events and the USGA put a seminar together with some other associations that are currently running adaptive tournaments,” Ebalo said. “I went there with the mindset of learning, ‘Hey, how are we going to be able to do something along those lines here in Southern Nevada’, whether it be starting with clinics and then tournaments and then also how to work with golf courses. There are a couple organizations in Southern Nevada that already do some adaptive things, and will expand what they are doing. I now have an understanding about what all needs to go into something like this and it is a big project in order to get it going correctly. We definitely want to create a blueprint to run clinics and then events here in Southern Nevada, but there are some organizational things to do and some money that needs to be raised.”
Conovor’s Dad, the “Daddy Caddie” said the Adaptive Open experience was over the top.
“It was amazing,” Cliff Conover said. “The courses were beautiful and the people were beautiful. Golf has been just wonderful for Kody and everyone who plays with him just loves him.”
