By Josh Cook
Special to The Courier-Journal

Huntington's disease can't keep 60-year-old Bruce Veneklase off the golf course, though it might send his club flying on his follow-through with regularity. (By David R. Lutman, Special to The Courier-Journal)

Any round is a great round. Every shot is a great shot. Every day he's on the course is a success, even though he spends most of his time tossing clubs and yelling at his ball.

Veneklase isn't your average weekend hacker. He plays three or four times a week despite having a huge handicap: Huntington's disease, a hereditary, debilitating brain disorder that eventually will take his life.

But Veneklase, 60, never has let HD ruin his life or his golf swing.

"Golf is what lets Bruce know he's still alive," said Carol Spalding, Veneklase's sister. "This is a helpless, hopeless disease. As long as he can play golf a little bit he's … not succumbing to it.

"He will not allow Huntington's to define his life."

On a recent afternoon at Crescent Hill Golf Course, Veneklase played his usual round, which normally consists of holes 1-3 and 9. He teed his ball up in the fairway about 100 yards from the No. 1 green and prepared to swing. His body twitched and hitched, then for a split second his involuntary movements stopped and in one swoop his ball -- and club -- took flight.

"Go, go, go!" he yelled at his ball, arms waving wildly. The ball landed on the green within 10 feet of the pin -- a "gimme" for this golfer -- and the club flew 10-15 yards behind him.

Veneklase has little trouble finding his ball because most of his shots are straight, but his clubs aren't so easily retrievable. Often they fly 40 yards ahead or behind him, sometimes farther.

"One time my son Josh was riding with Bruce and he had to climb a tree," Crescent Hill pro Barry Bonifield recalled. "Bruce threw it into the tallest possible spruce out there, and it was 92 or 93 degrees that day, but Josh got it down for him."

Veneklase, who lives in an assisted-living facility, is among the one in 10,000 Americans afflicted with HD. It begins slowly, then rapidly diminishes the ability to walk, talk, think and reason until the victim can't care for himself anymore.

Veneklase explained that to Bonifield in the fall of 2004, shortly after Bonifield and his wife, Diana, took over the course. The Bonifields have gotten to know Veneklase, and HD, very well since then.

"He's a miraculous kind of guy who does not let the disease get him down. He brightens everybody's day," Bonifield said. "… He plays in some really super-cold winter days when other people will not play. He'll play in the rain. … He looks forward to his golf."

Soccer another love

Veneklase, who was named the 2005 Person of the Year with HD by the Huntington's Disease Society of America, is passionate about golf and also enjoys attending soccer matches. He was a pioneer of youth soccer in the city -- he helped establish the Highland Youth Recreation leagues -- and coached at Atherton High School for 10 years.

He even talked Assumption volleyball coach Ron Kordes into coaching youth soccer years ago.

"Having never played soccer, I tried to decline," Kordes said. "I even told Bruce that I did not even know how many people were on the field at one time. Well, Bruce being Bruce and as persistent as he was, the next thing I know I was coaching a soccer team. He even brought me a couple of books to read and showed me some drills to run."

Veneklase still smiles as if he just made a hole-in-one (for the record, he has two in his life), peppers conversations with phrases such as "too good" and "too lucky" and begins stories by saying, "You're going to love this."

"This is my favorite hat," he told a visitor to the Crescent Hill clubhouse as he donned a baseball cap bearing the words "Life Is Good."

Veneklase certainly has it good at Crescent Hill. He stores his clubs there, and the Bonifields allow him free use of the course and a cart whenever he wants. He can't walk the course anymore, so he usually brings along someone to drive him or enlists one of the junior staffers at the course.

"He may get his golf here, but we get much more back from Bruce having him here," Diana Bonifield said. "He's very special; we certainly enjoy having him around. The kids (who work at the course) have learned so much, and so have we. Knowing Bruce, it's a lesson in humility. He's just so positive, and he's a funny guy. He plays a round, then he comes in and tells us about every shot. He gets so tickled."

Some startled reactions

Most golfers at Crescent Hill know Veneklase and are accommodating if his club lands in their fairway. But occasionally some are taken aback by his wobbly gait, his somewhat slurred speech and his occasional screams of joy over a good shot -- not to mention the club tossing.

"Sometimes he's a little difficult to understand, and the way he moves, sometimes people are a little frightened by him," Barry Bonifield said. "I've had people tell me that there was a drunk on the course or that there was a man on the course having a seizure."

One recent day a man came into the pro shop requesting a refund, claiming his round was ruined by Veneklase.

"So I shared a little bit of Bruce's history with him, and after I went through the whole thing he apologized," Bonifield said.

Veneklase's story, in fact, has been made into a movie.

Tom Borders met him one day while playing golf at Crescent Hill with his wife and brother. Veneklase joined them for the first three holes.

"After playing nine, my wife and I realized that we had had as close to a mystical experience as we'd ever had," Borders said. "I saw more courage in Bruce than in anyone I had ever met -- standing bravely, facing certain debilitation and death, as we all are, and thinking of himself as a lucky guy. What an attitude!"

A week later Borders returned to play four holes with Veneklase, and this time he brought a film crew. Thus, "Better Golf with Bruce," a 20-minute film about Veneklase.

"He helped my game immensely," Borders said. "Since playing with Bruce, I have never had a bad lie. And I have really learned how to enjoy the game -- and the day."

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Sue (aka sue_twin2)

Owner: Huntington's Disease Support Club & associated web sites 

Moderator: Huntington's At Risk
Personal Website: Welcome to Sue_twin2's Website

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"Life is like a grinding stone: it can polish you or pulverize you,
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