Congratulations to Advanced Prosthetics and Orthotics of America™ for being chosen Ohio Willow Wood’s Customer Spotlight for fall 2000.
Advanced P & O is a facility that prides itself on putting customers first by offering the latest in innovative O & P care, whether by walk-in patient care or in their fully equipped mobile units. They can assist in providing transportation for patients who require assistance in traveling to and from the facility. They also offer free evaluation clinics to those who may require O & P services.

By working closely with other healthcare professionals, Advanced P & O is able to establish a high standard of quality assurance and customer satisfaction. They have been in practice for over 15 years, so through the shared experience and knowledge of their staff, they are capable of ensuring that high standards of quality are met for each and every patient.

Advanced P & O became an Ohio Willow Wood Diamond Direct customer this past spring, after attending a Pathfinder seminar in Orlando. It was at this time that they introduced OWW to amputee golfer and Advanced P & O customer, Gary Hooks. Advanced and OWW currently co-sponsor Gary Hooks, who in the next two years plans to be the first amputee golfer to qualify for the Senior PGA Tour.

Ohio Willow Wood is pleased to have formed a relationship with a facility such as Advanced Prosthetics and Orthotics, and with their patient, Mr. Gary Hooks. Like Gary says, “Going to visit the people at Advanced is like going home to visit family.” That’s how we like to do business.
Congratulations again to everyone at Advanced, and keep up the good work!

National Amputee Golfer Hooks Striving for No. 1 World Ranking
By Buddy Shacklette
Staff Writer

EDGEWATER – Geoff Nicholas is to the National Amputee Golf Association what Michael Jordan was to basketball.

In other words, he’s in a league all his own.
Longtime Edgewater resident Gary Hooks is hoping to change all of that this year.
Hooks, the United States’ below knee national champion, has seen Nicholas win the world title eight years running. He said his goal is to bring Nicholas’ long-running streak to an end five weeks from now.

“He’s mine this year. I’ve already told everybody that. My ultimate goal is to beat Geoff. He’s a tough nut to crack. He’s the world champion,” said the 46-year-old Oak Hill restaurant owner. “Four years ago, when I first started out, I said ‘by the year 2000 I want to be the best amputee golfer in the world.” Last year, I got the U.S. title and hopefully this year I can get the world title.

Beating Nicholas, who has dominated U.S. competition the past eight years, won’t be easily accomplished.

The Australian native missed qualifying for the British Open by two strokes last year and pocketed $165,000 on the Australian PGA Tour.

Two-under-par rounds by the Aussie distinguished him from the rest of the pack in last year’s 50th National Amputee Golf Tournament, played at Spencer T. Olin Golf Course in Alton, I11.

Hooks has dropped nearly three strokes off his handicap over past year and says he’s poised for a run at Nicholas, who topped him by 16 strokes in the national event – even though Hooks captured the United States championship.

“I’m better now this year at this point than I was last year. The win last year gave me a lot of confidence,” said Hooks, who owns a 1.6 handicap. “Achieving a goal like that was something. You always feel like you do play, and you achieve it, it kind of takes the monkey off your back.”
Hooks may not be the best amputee golfer, but he is among the sports elite.

He has finished in the top five in all of the tournaments he’s entered the past two years. This year he opened the season by winning the Southern States Championships in April, a two-day event in Perry, Ga., which was played at Houston Lake Country Club.

The world’s third-ranked amputee golfer followed up that performance by taking runner-up honors to Larry Van Sandt, the country’s top-ranked overall amputee, at the South Park Amputee Classic last month in Louisville, Ky.

“I’ve got a whole different attitude playing now than I used to have,” Hooks said. “I’m not so much trying to prove something to myself and other people now. I feel like I belong there and it makes a huge difference.”

He’ll head to the Western Regional Tournament in Thousand Oaks, Calif., the first week of July before getting another shot at Nicholas a month later at the U.S. Amputee Championships in Birmingham, Ala., at Chase Lake Country Club..

Nicholas and Hooks will likely meet in the championship flight of the national tournament, but if not, they’ll definitely meet in head-to-head match-play in the International Challenge Ryder Cup Matches later that week.

All players’ handicaps will be tested on this day, when they will be forced to play 36 holes.
“There’s four national champions, four national runners-ups and then four picks,” Hooks said. “It’s just like the PGA Ryder Cup. We’re playing against everybody outside of the United States.”

The native of Thomasville, N.C., lost his lower right leg 28 years ago in a tractor-trailer crash.
A promising young athlete who averaged 21 points and 14 rebounds for Thomasville Senior High’s basketball team as a sophomore, Hooks was traveling in a pickup truck with his parents when a semi-truck driver lost control of his rig.

“I was asleep when it happened,” said Hooks, who dislocated both hips in the wreck. “I’ve got about a 15 second memory of being in a wreck.”

The crash severed the lower portion of his right leg while dashing all of the 16-years-old’s hopes of playing for North Carolina basketball coach Dean Smith.

“When I was laying in the hospital I told my dad go get a gun and we’ll end this. And My dad looked me in the eye and told me, “this is either going to get you or you’re going to get it,’ “ Hooks said Six months after the 1969 incident, Hooks was his high school baseball team’s starting pitcher. He also went on to be the golf team’s top player.

When referring to his prosthetic company he sums up their services in two words “The Best”. Gary has been using Advanced Prosthetics of America for all his prosthetic needs. Gary in a gesture of extreme satisfaction and endorsement of his prosthetic company pointed to his prosthetic leg saying “this leg carried me all the way thru the national championships”. Currently, Gary Hooks is being co-sponsored by two companies he holds in high regard – Advanced Prosthetics and Orthotics of America and Ohio Willow Wood. Gary was recently fitted with Ohio Willow Wood’s revolutionary new prosthetic foot called the “Pathfinder”. Both companies are very supportive of Gary Hooks on his road to the #1 world ranking. Keep it up Gary!