ROCKVILLE, Md — Golf instructors talk a lot about using ground forces.
Max Togisala doesn’t have that option.
Three years ago, when he was a standout high school golfer with a junior-college scholarship awaiting him, Togisala, a Utah native, suffered a skiing accident that left him paralyzed from the waist down.
Togisala loved the game too much to leave it behind, but he knew he’d have to learn to play another way.
“I just said to myself, OK, let’s do this,” Togisala says.
Now 21, Togisala has adjusted well, and then some. He ranks among the top adaptive golfers in the world.
At the 2025 U.S. Adaptive Open, which is playing out this week at Woodmont Country Club, just north of Washington, D.C., Togisala posted an opening round five-under 67 on Monday. He backed that up with a 76 on Tuesday and sat at one under for the week and T6 in the men’s overall division heading into Wednesday’s final round.
Togisala plays left-handed in a VertaCat, a specialized cart with an adjustable seat that props him up into a standing posture, and straps that keep his lower body stable and secure. From this position, Togisala can still move it; he flies it 215 yards off the tee.
But, of course, it’s not the same swing he used to wield.
Because he can’t rotate his hips or push off with his feet, Togisala now relies entirely on his upper body.
With these new mechanics, he fights a hook, which he combats, he says, by putting the ball farther back in his stance and strengthening his grip.
‘We’ll figure it out’: At U.S. Adaptive Open, lessons in perspective and resilience
“I miss it right because I don’t rotate my hips and my hands are in front of my body every time,” he says. “So I’ve kind of almost had to push the ball for it to go straight.”
The other battle is to protect his body against the torque and recoil of his new swing, which are so forceful, he says, that “I’ve actually had a driver snap over my neck.”
His solution is a regimented strength and mobility routine that focuses on his shoulders, lats and arms, along with longer warmup time before every round.
Otherwise, he says, life — and golf — go on as before.
“It’s a natural swing; I’m just going with the flow,” he says. “There’s still a follow through. It’s just not that beautiful finish on the toe like a pro type of swing.”
To learn more from Togisala about his swing, watch the video above.
