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Back in the game after bad accident Commentary By RANDY HAMMERICKSEN Five years ago, he was working diligently to groom his game for a shot at the PGA Senior Tour. Then, disaster struck Bobby Chilton, owner of the Golf USA store of Medford. Chilton, 53, fell from the top of his garage and broke both elbows, shattered his left wrist and cracked his right wrist. For a long time, he could barely move either of his arms, let alone swing a golf club. But after major surgery by Dr. John Maurer of Ashland and agonizing recuperation, Chilton's left wrist recovered enough for him to swing a golf club. Maurer made a new joint in the wrist and took tendons from another part of his hand to hold it together. "You hear it crack and crunch when I swing or move it, but it works," says Chilton, who is back playing and teaching the game. But his Senior Tour dream is over. "I figured I had about a three-year time frame to be able to be successful on the Senior Tour, and that's over," he says. "It's disappointing because I had worked hard on my game." As he prepared to go to tour school, Chilton's handicap was down to 2. And falling. "I think I could have done something," says Chilton. "But after this all happened, the main thing I wanted to do was stay in the game." He accomplished that when he and his wife, Dottie, and Kathy Kay of Medford, purchased Golf USA of Medford in 1996. Chilton says he never aspired to be a PGA teaching professional. "All I wanted to do was be involved in a golf business like this and try to help people play golf," he says. He recently took the National Golf Instructors course and became fully accredited to teach. He's already using his calm, patient demeanor to help local golfers with their ball-striking capabilities. Chilton teaches the swing the National Golf Instructors' way. It's not Natural Golf or Gravity Golf, teaching methods offered on TV infomercials. But it contains some of the same theories. "It's basically what you see the pros do," says Chilton. "It's fundamental. If you learn it, you can improve your distance, accuracy and start lowering your scores after three to five lessons." I agreed to let Chilton try his methods on me. I've always found myself somewhat unnerved trying to swing a golf club in front of a teacher or golf pro. He cut my swing into pieces. He made it simple enough for me to understand. We drilled, made many practice swings, and hit nearly 150 balls. He eliminated my strong grip, which was causing me to snap-hook drives. He shortened my take-away and let me know my swing is "too fast." During practice swings, he put his hand in a spot for me to aim at on the take-away. From that spot, he told me to push the club up to the top of the swing in a wrist-cocking motion. As you uncoil and come down from the there, the power comes. With my wrist properly cocked and my hips driving hard toward the ball, allowing me to increase my clubhead speed. "If you coil properly, you can pick up as much as 5 to 10 mph of clubhead speed," says Chilton, who offers three- and five-part lesson packages. Five one-hour lessons cost $150; three cost $90. And his lessons come with a guarantee. "If you're not happy with your improvement, you get your money back," says Chilton. "That's how confident we are that this works." For information, call Golf USA (608-7691). FORMER MEDFORD HIGH and University of Oregon golfer Paul Weinhold recently appeared on Fox (cable Channel 45) in the Northwest Golf Challenge Series. Weinhold was the amateur men's club champion for the Eugene Country Club team, which met Arrowhead Golf Club in a match at Pumpkin Ridge. Both teams had their men's and women's club champions and a professional. Eugene Country Club lost the match, 1-up. "I played so bad, I didn't even watch the show when it aired (Monday)," says Weinhold. "I didn't want to see myself miss the short putts that I missed." Despite being unhappy with his play, Weinhold defeated his male amateur opponent from Arrowhead, 2-and-1, over nine holes. Today's Sports Index Mail Tribune Copyright� The Mail Tribune 1999, Medford, OR U.S.A.