ABOUT THE CHARITY

Russ Holden, a PGA of America Life Member, worked with Bernhard Langer for nearly 20 years preceding and concurrent with initiating the Caddy For A Cure program. The program provided disabled veterans with the opportunity to caddy for PGA TOUR professionals in Pro-Am events on the PGA TOUR. Through this program, CFAC developed strong relationships with many disabled veterans from around the country, as well as with several current and retired Senior Military Officials from all branches of the Armed Services. This first-hand experience with wounded veterans provided him with great insight into the needs of this special group of brave heroes relative to how the game of golf could impact their lives in a positive way.

The mission of Inspiring Warriors Golf is similar to that of CFAC, with a unique twist: Inspire combat wounded veterans through the game of golf, but additionally, add organized social and structured group events, and complement it all with focused life coaching to provide long-lasting and meaningful inspiration to them. This multi-pronged effort has proven to be extremely successful and a good platform to be duplicated around the country on a much larger scale.

As part of the program growth initiative, IWG is now partnered with The Warrior’s Journey out of Springfield, MO. The Warrior’s Journey works to raise awareness and create preventative resources to help educate and prepare our warriors for their time in the military and beyond.

There are great organizations that help warriors with the physical wounds of combat, but often the invisible wounds go unrecognized and far too often lead to brokenness, addiction, and suicide. TWJ specializes in recognizing and addressing these invisible wounds.

TWJ worked with a data team at The Harvard School of Business and the United States Chaplain Corps at the Pentagon to identify the most common challenges faced by our warriors. Addressing these challenges before they become a crisis is key to prevention and ongoing resilience. These challenges represent physical, emotional, and spiritual questions. TWJ continues to create digital and physical resources to raise awareness and prevention across these challenges.

IWG founder Russ Holden commented “While the IWG events themselves are life-changing for the participants, we also see the bigger picture of how IWG can impact the extended wounded community of family members and friends.” He concluded “We are so honored to be able to offer this program to brave warriors who are dealing with the sacrifices of their service to us all, but we are also thrilled to know we are ‘growing the game’ in the wounded warrior segment. This program is great content for social media and local or even national news, further expanding the message of inspiration. We’re excited to see what the future holds for IWG.”