GOLF

Chad Pfeifer to be first veteran amputee to play in Web.com Tour golf event

Doug Ferguson
AP Golf Writer
Chad Pfeifer is an Iraq War veteran and amputee.

Chad Pfeifer turned to golf as part of his recovery and healing after he lost his left leg above the knee while serving in Iraq. It has taken him one step below the PGA Tour.

Pfeifer, a retired Army corporal and Idaho native who plays out of the Golf Club of Estrella in Goodyear, has been given a sponsor's exemption to play next week in the Albertsons Boise Open on the Web.com Tour. He will be the first veteran amputee to play in an official Web.com Tour event.

Pfeifer, 33, lost his left leg in April 2007 when a roadside bomb blew up a vehicle he was in with members of D Company of the 3rd Airborne Battalion in the 509th Infantry Regiment. Fellow soldier Christian Bagge, who lost both legs in Iraq, encouraged Pfeifer to take up golf during his rehab in San Antonio. Pfeifer played his first 18-hole round 10 months after he lost his leg.

Since then, Pfeifer has won the 2010 National Amputee Golf Championship, along with three wins at the George W. Bush Warrior Open for wounded veterans. He has played Gateway Tour and eGolf Tour events, and he was in "The Big Break: The Palm Beaches, Florida" episode on Golf Channel.

Pfeifer, a graduate of the Golf Academy of America in Phoenix, also finished fifth in the American Century Championship at Lake Tahoe, which featured Annika Sorenstam.

Pfeifer was one of 12 players who competed in the 23rd season of Golf Channel's Big Break reality TV show.