At U.S. Adaptive Open, records fall (and Tiger Woods gets some company)

ROCKVILLE, Md. — Note the name Kipp Popert.

He has taken a place alongside Tiger Woods.

With a seven-under 65 in Wednesday’s final round of the U.S. Adaptive Open here at Woodmont Country Club, Popert, a 26-year-old Englishman with cerebral palsy, capped a dominant week to win his third consecutive men’s overall title in the event and become one of just four male golfers to three-peat in a USGA championship. The last was Woods, who pulled off the feat twice, at the U.S. Junior Amateur and U.S. Amateur, during an historic stretch from 1991-96.

On his run to the trifecta, Popert shattered a slew of his own U.S. Adaptive Open scoring records, starting with a single-round mark of 11-under 61 in Monday’s opener. His three-day total of 24-under also blew away the 14-under record he set at last year’s championship in Kansas. His nearest competitors, Simon Lee of South Korea (intellectual impairment) and Lachland Wood of Australia (short stature) were 12 shots back.

Not that Popert was puffing his chest about it.

“Absolutely not,” he said when asked if he would compare himself to Woods. “I’m nowhere near that. I just want to keep trying to grow the sport as much as possible.”

In the women’s division, 2022 U.S. Adaptive Open champ Kim Moore of Battle Creek, Mich., who plays with a lower-limb impairment, reclaimed the title she won three years ago. Her 54-hole total of 16 over put her three shots clear of second-place finishers Bailey Bish of Tucson, Ariz., (coordination impairment) and Amanda Cunha (visual impairment) of Kaneohe, Hawaii.

“It feels just as good as the first time,” Moore said. “Definitely something I was really looking forward to and hoping, and it’s just nice to be able to be on top again.”

This was the fourth U.S. Adaptive Open, the youngest of the USGA’s championships, but the first to receive live final-round coverage on national TV. Viewers tuning in from home got to watch the top performers from a field that began with 96 players from 10 countries, the United States included, ranging in age from 16 to 75. After Tuesday’s second round, the field was cut to 28 men and 14 women. Along with men’s and women’s individual titles, the field was vying for trophies in eight categories of impairment, using swings that were as varied as they were effective.

With scant exceptions (such as, for instance, free drops in the sand for seated players whose balls wound up under bunker lips or other spots they couldn’t access with their carts), the official Rules of Golf applied. But as elite competitions go, this one was shot through with unusual camaraderie. Even in their most cutthroat moments, players’ open support for one other underscored the sense that something beyond titles was on the line. A community of golfers, keen to draw more eyeballs to the adaptive game, was in it together on the national stage.

“There is no doubt it’ll inspire,” Moore said. “I have no doubt that any disabled person out there will see these highlights and see this live coverage and just be motivated to do some things themselves. . . And not just disabled players but able-bodied people, mentally and physically. To be able to see players like myself go out there and have fun and do their best and play some great golf I think is very inspiring, and I’m hopeful people saw that today.”

In adaptive golf, adjustments abound, and not just for players. In advance of this year’s event, the South Course at Woodmont CC, which will host the championship again in 2026, underwent design tweaks to better accommodate golfers with disabilities. Entrances to bunkers were lowered and flattened for easier access, and teeing grounds were joined to create continuous flow from one box to another.

With the championship still in its infancy, the USGA has been dialing in refinements, too, treating the early years of the event as a kind of “trial period,” said tournament director Stephanie Parel. Among other areas of focus, Parel said, the governing body has been looking closely at categories of impairment to ensure that competitions are as equitable as possible. Along with the eight categories, the USGA has implemented different teeing areas within some groupings to promote a level playing field. In the upper-limb impairment category, for example, golfers with two arms play from the back tees while competitors with one arm peg it from the next box up.

It is, Parel acknowledged, “an imperfect” science that she and her colleagues will continue to examine, drawing upon ongoing feedback.

On a sweltering Wednesday afternoon in Maryland, the early input was positive from one of the event’s participants. Andreas Brandenberger (upper limb impairment) had come from San Diego to compete in his first U.S. Adaptive Open. Though he missed the cut, he stuck around to watch the final round.

“It’s been an amazing event,” Brandenberger said. “Great field. Great hosts. Great organizers. I wouldn’t change anything, except maybe find some cooler weather next year.”

In an air-conditioned clubhouse, meanwhile, Kipp Popert was wrapping up his post-round interviews and eyeing his next USGA event: He has made it through to final qualifying for the U.S. Amateur at Whippoorwill Club in Armonk, N.Y., on Monday, where he has been granted an exemption to use a cart.

“The USGA have been incredible to help me navigate the buggy use and the travel because I can’t play straight away after getting off a plane, so I’m really appreciative of what they’ve done to give me the best chance to qualify,” Popert said. “I will go there and give it my absolute best. I think I can do it.”

If he does, he said, “that would top off a really good American trip.”