Dude, Where’s My Cart tournament highlights frustrations of Alzheimer’s

WARDEN — Some people take their golf very seriously. Fortunately, those people were not at Sage Hills Golf Course Saturday, because the challenges of the Dude, Where’s My Cart?! Alzheimer’s fundraiser tournament would have driven them bonkers. 

“Each challenge we had — we had nine of them — is dementia-based,” said Karisti Cox, sales and marketing specialist for Summer Wood Alzheimer’s Special Care and the organizer of the tournament. Those ranged from special goggles that affected players’ vision to swinging while sitting on a toilet to driving with a club 1/3 the size of a normal one. 

“When you have dementia, your brain matter actually begins to break down and your brain actually begins to shrink,” Cox said. “Someone even with the early stages of dementia, their brains will be a third less than the size of a healthy brain. So (players) use a child-size 36-inch driver to drive their ball.” 

This is the second year for the Dude, Where’s My Cart?! fundraiser, and it brought in about $15,000 for Alzheimer’s research, Cox said. There were 16 teams of four players registered, and about 30 volunteers helped Cox put the tournament together. Eight of the teams sponsored and set up challenges as well.  

One challenge was called the Wheel of Mis-Fortune sponsored by James Shank of Edward Jones, Cox said.  

“They spun it, and whatever it landed on, that was their impairment,” she said. “Anything from having to close one eye to standing on one leg, but an impairment that someone would have if they had dementia.” 

Perhaps the best — by which she meant the most frustrating — challenge, Cox said, was the Clutter Putter, put together by the team from Walgreens in Moses Lake.  

“One thing that I hadn't been aware of, that I learned about, was that people with Alzheimer's tend to hoard items that they are familiar with,” said Walgreens Manager Tracy Goff. “So, our Clutter Putter had everything from suitcases to forks and spoons and knives to underwear and shoes, things that people with Alzheimer's tend to collect.” 

The Walgreens team members took the opportunity to get in touch with their inner sadists. Their hole was the 16th, and they littered the green liberally with clothing, books, videotapes and toys that players had to putt around. Another junk pile was also set up at the third hole, where each player had to pick up an item and carry it with them until they reached the 16th hole, where they could drop it anywhere they liked to add to the obstacle for those coming after them. 

“I think the most fun that the participants had was when they actually made it into the hole, they were able to rearrange all the clutter however they saw fit for the next team,” Goff said. “(By the 12th or 13th team) our hole started looking like a mountain. It had everything from a walker to suitcases to baby dolls and forks in the ground, you name it.” 

As entertaining as they were, all the challenges pointed toward some less-amusing realities, Cox said.  

“(They’re) all designed to educate people on the struggles of the daily lives that people with dementia have, all these tiny little things,” she said. “So while it's really funny at the time, it's also extremely educational. It points to something very serious.” 

“It's an experience that they will never, ever, ever forget,” Goff said, adding that her team will want to play every year. “And once they have that experience and they understand more about Alzheimer's, I don't think it's something that they will ever let go.” 

    A golfer finds that his swing isn’t as good when he’s standing on one leg, just one of the challenges players faced in the Dude, Where’s My Cart?! golf tournament Saturday.
  

    The Walgreens team shows off the latest fashion in adult diapers at the Dude, Where’s my Cart?! golf tournament Saturday. Top, from left: Lisa Phillips, Lorena Gonzalez, Conny Salazar. Bottom: Tracy Goff, Caroline Nelson.