In handling Disability investigations it pays to have a working knowledge of the game of golf. It is remarkable how often one ends up near and some-times on a golf course in pursuit of documentation in the matter of questionable claims.

Sometimes one can prepare and sometimes not. In the case at hand two of us had flown into the subject’s city on short notice.We had picked up the subject exiting his garage and followed, arriving shortly thereafter at an upscale public golf course. Time to think fast.

While talking with the club house folks about a round, we were able to discover the subject’s tee time and sign up for the immediately following tee time, and rent clubs. Fortunately we were both suitably dressed.

Our subject was early for his tee time and like most who favor early arrivals, that time was to be used on the practice range warming up.We were able to get film of his stroke, which showed all the signs of lessons with a professional and regular golf games. The man could hit it long.

We reported to the tee in time to see the foursome including our subject tee off. Thanks to the wonders of the telephoto lens, we tracked the approach shots and his work on and around the greens. Our subject played well enough to win some money from unsuspecting companions.

No signs of the fatigue or shortness of breath which had been said to prevent our subject from practicing his profession. He finished the round as strong as he started. And the putting we saw (and documented) was certainly inconsistent with the hand tremors claimed.

As if anticipating a future attorney’s argument (“just having a rare good day”) and wanting to challenge his representative to become more creative, our subject headed to the golf course on the following day as well. Once again we were able to maneuver a tee time immediately behind the subject. And once again we documented our subject completing an excellent round with no signs of the stated disabilities.

We returned home, tanner than usual and in an unusually buoyant state of mind. Despite the rigors of filming, we both had good rounds ourselves and had enjoyed the course.

Our subject, on the other hand, is about to find himself in trouble that no handicap – neither physical nor of the golfing variety – will help him out of.

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