It’s been a remarkable three-year stretch for Jupiter resident Dennis Walters.
In 2018, he received the Bobby Jones Award – the USGA’s highest honor. A year later, he was inducted into the World Golf Hall of Fame. And on Monday night he will be featured in a one-hour documentary on The Golf Channel.
Not bad for someone who never played on the PGA Tour, which is of course a major part of his life story.
Walters didn’t get inducted into the Hall of Fame for his ability; it was the courageous way he overcame a disability that stopped his dream of playing golf against the world’s best players.
When Walters was 24 and a promising pro golfer, he became paralyzed in a golf cart accident at a New Jersey course. He instantly knew it was a serious injury when he couldn’t feel his legs. He would never walk again.
“A long time ago I realized I wasn’t getting better, so I should try to make the best of it,” the 74-year-old Walters recently said. “The most satisfying thing is I did make the best of it.
“You look at where I came from in the hospital bed to the Hall of Fame … you can’t make that up. The odds of something like that happening is too much to calculate. You can’t put a bet like that in Vegas.”
Walters reinvented his career to become a trick-shot artist, learning how to hit shots from his wheelchair that amazed some of the game’s best players. He has performed almost 3,400 shows, alongside a sidekick dog, to the wonder of anyone who has the good fortune to attend.
“People told me I was giving them hope, encouragement and inspiration,” Walters said. “If you can do that to someone, that’s a precious gift.”
Walters’ motto has become, “Get a New Dream!” He says it at all his shows, he said it at his Hall of Fame induction speech and, fittingly, it’s the title of the documentary that airs Monday at 8 p.m. (and re-airs Wednesday at 5 p.m.) on The Golf Channel.
Walters’ best friend, Wayne Warms, a PGA Professional, had been trying to persuade Walters into doing a documentary on his life. Then karma stepped in.
Due to COVID-19 shutting courses down in Palm Beach County last spring, Walters went to PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie to hit balls and allow his dog Augusta (Gussie) to have a run.
As he was leaving the range, a man approached him and asked if he was Dennis Walters. That man was Tim McEneny, who moved to Port St. Lucie a decade ago after a career as CEO of an Internet software company. Warms was McEneny’s golf instructor, so he knew of Walters’ story.
McEneny had never been in the news or entertainment business, but the rest of his family had. He had been going to film festivals at Vero Beach for several years and thought, “I really think I can do this” as the executive producer.
Then came the chance encounter.
“I just told him that he should make a movie,” McEneny said. “It’s such a great story, so inspiring. Dennis said, ‘You’re the second person in the last 24 hours to tell me that. Maybe I should.’ ”
They soon started work on the project, only to shut it down for four months when COVID-19 cases spiked in South Florida. When they started working on it again last fall, McEneny was amazed at how many stars were willing to appear in the documentary.
We’re talking legends such as Jack Nicklaus, Gary Player, Arnold Palmer (from previous interviews) and even Tiger Woods. Another legend, long-time CBS broadcaster Jim Nantz, narrates the documentary.
“It is extremely satisfying that people in the golf industry are the ones who have said I did something well,” Walters said. “Jack has been an incredible influence in my career. I played with Gary in South Africa after turning pro. It means a lot to me all of these people wanted to be involved.”
The feeling goes both ways, says Nantz.
“Dennis is one of golf’s all-time ambassadors and also one of its greatest inspirations,” Nantz said. “It was an honor to narrate a film about his amazing life. Just as he has done thousands of times at his incredible golf clinics, “Get a New Dream” will motivate a larger and wider audience to pursue a bigger calling in life.”
Walters says he started doing shows more for himself, to stay in the game he loves. But over time, he learned what he has done for more than 45 years is bigger than him.
“I want to continue to show people that anything is possible, not only in golf but in life itself,” Walters said. “It’s a universal message. I hope whoever sees the documentary takes something positive from it.”
No doubt they will.