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Brandon Babineaux:
It was the best feeling in the whole world to win the world championship. It meant so much to me to win
this. It told me that my level of golf is achieving one stage at a time and I hope that it keeps on
going up to the top best level that I can possibly achieve in my golf game. Everyone on the USA Team is
a WINNER!!!
In order for me to win this tournament, I knew that I had to keep the consistency in golf, making the
best outcome in shot making around on the course. My distance was one of the greatest advantage at the
WDGC, out-driving everyone an average of 75 yards and turning par 5's into par 4's for me. But the
whole mental part is that I had to have patience around the course since there were 5 plus hour rounds.
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Wally DeVe:
I was very excited about being in Edmonton representing the USA as the US Senior Champion. Really felt a lot
of pressure to do well and was not happy after the first round. The course played very tough for us old
guys. The water came into play a lot and forced me to focus on keeping the ball in play and avoiding
the water, the high grass, and the waste areas. I felt that Jim Hynes' first round score of 79 was
great in the windy and cold conditions that we saw the first day. I don't think I was prepared for
those BIG and VERY FAST greens. Day 2 I was starting to feel pretty sick, maybe that helped to calm me
down. I was more concerned about being sick than being nervous playing. Started making the putts and
had a good round of 76 that put me in the lead. That evening I spent 4 hours in the emergency room at
the hospital getting an IV for some kind of virus. The next 2 days I was just trying to keep the ball
in play and letting the other guys take the chances. Didn't make the putts the last 2 days, but felt I
did a good job of avoiding the big mistakes so no one was able to catch up. After it was over I felt
relief and proud to be on the USA Team. This was my first WDGC and I think the best parts were being
part of the USA Team and also meeting other deaf golfers from all over the world. Was fun learning new
signs that other countries use. Now I am looking forward to next years United States Deaf Golf
Championships in the St. Louis area.
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Susan Zupnik:
When I found out I was paired with Linda Davis,
the defending champ during first two rounds, I was thrilled because I did not play with her at the
last tournament in Sweden (2004). We started at the tenth hole, and I started off badly shooting
47. I was struggling with the cold weather that morning, as it was in the low 50's, and I had played
in the high 80's and humidity the week before. I was kind of stiff, and finally got loosened up by
the 10th hole (1st hole) and shot 40. The greens were fast and I putted fairly well.
On the second
day, the weather got a little warmer, and but was still too cold for me... and to my amazement,
managed to play little better. I shot 82, while Linda faltered to 88. She failed to make any pars on
the first nine holes but improved on the back nine despite three double bogeys, 46-42. This meant
that I was leading by a stroke entering the third round. Having won the previous week I felt very
comfortable about my position at the top of the women’s competition.
On the third day,
the weather got much warmer and I was really looking forward to lowering my score. Unfortunately, it
remained the same, and Linda managed to shoot again 82. I did drop two birdies for the round! One
with a fifty foot long breaking putt on the par three 8th hole and on 18th hole - a difficult long
par 4 - 400 yards. Linda started off with 40 and on the 12th hole she made a quadruple bogey. Linda
hit it in the tall natural grass and tried twice to chop it out to the fairway. Once she got clear
of the grass she made a bad discovery, she hit the wrong ball. She managed to recover and make 6
pars on the over nine holes. Patty Sue, the third member of our group, played much better and was
trailing us by 2 strokes as she shot 84 for the day. Again,
I was leading only by a stroke.
During the last day, for some reason, I was unable
to putt, starting badly, with 22 putts on first 9 holes. Then my hopes for winning came to an end on
the 11th hole when I hit my tee shot into the water. When I took my drop, the ball came to rest in a
divot. Instead of using a fairway wood as planned, I used a 3 iron (I should have used a 6 iron
from the divot) and miss-hit the ball and ended up in the water again! My final score on that hole
was 10 on a par 5. As a result, I shot 94 with 41 putts. That was a lot different than the first
three days where I had 33, 32 and 33 putts respectively. Linda played awesome the first nine holes
with only 2 bogeys and shot 38. She struggled a bit on the back nine and overall and shot 82 for the
third time and won by 11 strokes over me.
Overall, I was very pleased with my performance
despite the pain in my lower back! Furthermore, I was happy to see my teammates perform well and
win the team championship for the third time in a row!
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Jim Hynes (Director for the Men's Team):
As the Director for the Men's Team
and a Board Member for the USDGA, I was truly proud and happy to see our USA team dominate
both men's and women’s competitions winning World Championships for the USA. Also, the players
taking top three in 8 out of 9 places was really amazing and impressive. To have both Wally Deve and
Brandon Babineaux win for the men and Susan Zupnik come so close to winning for the women was fun to
watch. I was especially proud of Brandon Babineaux who was focused on his game during the
competition, never let up, and never allowed the other players to gain shots on him.
He impressed the players on the last day with his control and won the men's individual title over
the top two American golfers, Bill Roberts and Doren Granberry. Brandon is ready to join these two
as the best US players to challenge for the national title next year!
The other thing I really enjoyed was watching our team interact with the other deaf golfers of the
world. It was a great learning experience for them seeing the other forms of Sign Language from
around the world and how they can all come together at an international competition and communicate
and get to know about each other and their golf games. US Players Mike Houston, Wally Deve, Darrell
Hovinen and Mike Finneran were our newest team members and they spent a lot of time learning about
other players from around the world.
Lastly, I want to congratulate the
USA Ladies and Seniors for playing some fantastic golf for the week. The ladies withstood a last day
surge from the Australian team and held them off to win another team title. The Seniors really
showed they were ready to play taking the top 3 places and proving that they will be a force in
2008! I look forward to working with all the players at the next WDGC in Australia and hopefully I
will see everyone at the National Championship next summer in St.Louis.
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Not all the US victories came easily. The American
Women got a strong challenge from the ladies of Australia. The US team had what seemed to be an
insurmountable 12 shot lead going into the final round. But with no one playing well they opened the
door of opportunity for another team to sneak in and win the title. Australia almost managed to do just
that! Down Under golfer and women’s individual champion Linda Davis shot a final round 82 to chop into
the US lead. Thankfully American Golfers Susan Zupnik and Patti Sue Ploysa were able to hold off the
hard charging Aussies. The final winning margin was only 4 shots at the end of the tournament. The
ladies celebrated and breathed a sigh of relief at the same time! 
