Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2013 - 14

(the golfing life
)
Returning to
the Game
Despite health setbacks,
Mankato lawyer
Bailey Blethen
worked his way back to
the game he loves.
By Jon Roe
A
bout the time Bailey Blethen,
now 75, was turning six, the
scary summer illness was polio.
Blethen recalls having trouble walking as
a first grader and being the target of razzing
during a second-grade summer camp
when he had to ride a horse rather than
walk in order to stay up with the other
campers.
" It was really tough for me to participate
with the other kids, " Blethen says.
" But whenever my parents took me to the
doctor to see what was wrong, the doctor
would always say that it wasn't polio. That
made my parents feel better, but it didn't
help me get any better physically. "
By the end of second grade, however,
whatever had been ailing Blethen had disappeared.
And from then on, he spent his
early summer years watching his dad play
golf, caddieing at Mankato Golf Club and
teaching himself to play.
Blethen's high school team won its
conference championship three straight
years; Blethen took third individually
at the state high school tournament as
a junior. As a pre-med major at Brown
University, he didn't go out for the college
golf team-until his senior year, after he
had switched majors and started studying
American civilizations.
" I didn't do very much the one year I
did play, " Blethen recalls. " And I didn't
play much when I came back home and
went to law school. But I did start to practice
more about the time I was studying
for the bar exam. "
Thus began a very satisfactory, if not
12
MINNESOTAGOLFER Spring 2013
Bailey Blethen
" I'd be lying if I said I could play the way I used
to. But it's exciting just to be playing again. "
heralded, amateur golf career for Blethen.
Over the next 40 years, he won six or seven
championships at Mankato Golf Club
as well as a handful of city championships
and somewhere around 30 shortstop
tournaments around the state. He was a
worthy opponent at The Resorters, competed
in numerous State Ams and State
Opens, and advanced through local qualifying
for the U.S. Open a couple of times.
In 1984, however, Blethen noticed that
his legs were giving him problems again.
He cut back on his practice routine, even
went to riding in a cart some times. " I
was playing in a spring tournament at the
club, and I didn't know if I was going to
make it after 10 or 11 holes, " Blethen says.
" I just couldn't do the walking anymore.
" The doctors said it was post-polio
syndrome, " he says. " The muscles that
had been served by the nerves that were
affected when I was in first grade just
didn't want to work anymore. I was done
playing golf for the next 21 years. "
In 2004, while visiting a physical therapist,
Blethen was advised that a hip replacement
might relieve his condition.
He had both hips replaced-one in 2004,
the other in 2005-and noticed almost
immediate improvement. By 2006, he was
back on the golf course.
" I'd be lying if I said I could play the
way I used to play. I knew I wouldn't
get back to that level again. I hit the ball
shorter off the tee, the short game has
gone to pieces, and my handicap is trending
to 15 or higher. But it's pretty exciting
just to be back playing again. "
www.mngolf.org
PHOTO BY PAT CHRISTMAN
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Spring 2013

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