Ken Green (golfer)

American professional golfer

other people named Ken Green

Kenneth J. Green (born July 23, 1958) is an American professional golfer who has played on the PGA Tour, the Nationwide Tour and the PGA Tour Champions. Green has won eleven tournaments as a pro, including five PGA Tour events and played on the U. S. team in the 1989 Ryder Cup. He is also known for returning to competition after losing his right leg in a 2009 RV accident.

Green was born in Danbury, Connecticut. He started playing golf at age 12 in Honduras, where his father, Martin "Marty" Green, was principal of the American school, and his only choices of sports were golf or soccer. He quit school at 16 to pursue his dream of becoming a professional tour player. He received his GED in December 1976.

Green later attended Palm Beach Junior College in Lake Worth, Florida for a year. He then accepted an athletic scholarship to attend the University of Florida in Gainesville, Florida, where he played for coach Buster Bishop and coach John Darr's Florida Gators men's golf team in National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) competition from 1977 to 1979. Green was a second team All Southeastern Conference (SEC) selection in 1979. He has sometimes played tournament rounds dressed in green from head to toe, shoes included. Green had 508 career starts on the PGA Tour, the last coming in 2006. He continues to compete in a limited number of Champions Tour events. In 2022, he was one of the participants in the inaugural U. S. Adaptive Open, a tournament for those with various impairments, held at Pinehurst Resort's No. 6 Course.

Green lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. He is the father of two sons, Ken Jr. and Hunter. He is an avid bowler who once rolled a 300 game. In 2003, Green was reported to have jumped into a canal in Palm Beach County, Florida to save his German Shepherd dog, Nip, from the jaws of an alligator. In June 2009, Green was seriously injured in a motor vehicle accident when his motor home left the road. Green was in his recreational vehicle traveling on Interstate 20 near Meridian, Mississippi, when the right front tire blew, causing the vehicle to veer off the road and go down a deep embankment before hitting a tree. The accident killed the passengers: William Green, his brother; Jeanne Hodgin, his girlfriend; and his dog, Nip. Even though his lower right leg was amputated as a result of injuries suffered in the accident, Green vowed to return to competitive golf. Green's estranged son Hunter died of a drug overdose in Dallas, Texas on January 22, 2010. In June 2019, Green released a self published autobiography titled "Hunter of Hope: A Life Lived Inside, Outside and On the Ropes." In it, he revisits his life as a teen in Honduras, where, because of his alcoholic father's negligence, he was suffered years of sexual abuse by his father's friends. The golf course was a refuge from this abuse. He explains one reason for the book: "My plan has been simple: Use the adversity as my purpose and reason to live."

In 2006, Green was inducted into the Connecticut Golf Hall of Fame.

No. DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin ofvictoryRunner up1Nov 20, 1988Dunlop Phoenix Tournament−15 (70 68 64 71=273)2 strokes Fred Couples

No. DateTournamentWinning scoreMargin ofvictoryRunners up1Feb 25, 1990Martell Hong Kong Open−8 (66 67 72=205)*4 strokes Danny Mijovic, Brian Watts
*Note: The 1990 Martell Hong Kong Open was shortened to 54 holes due to rain.