Paralympian kicked off golf course in Canada

From the Ottawa Citizen in Canada:

Paralympic athlete Todd Nicholson says he was upset after he was booted off a Gatineau golf course yesterday for wheeling his chair too close to a green.

Nicholson, named Canada's flag-bearer after he and the men's sledge hockey team won gold at the 2006 Paralympic Winter Games in Turin, Italy, was golfing in a tournament at Le Sorcier Golf Club when he says he was told to leave the course after accidentally wheeling his chair over the fringe of a green.

"I have never been kicked off a golf course for wheeling on the fringes," the Kinburn native said.

Nicholson admits he made a mistake, but insists it didn't cause damage. He said a marshal on the course asked him to leave and go back to the clubhouse. Nicholson obliged, but wasn't happy about it.

Nicholson was named yesterday to the national men's sledge hockey team
for the 2008-09 season, along with fellow forward Marc Dorion of Bourget and
defenceman Jean Labonté of Hull.

Nicholson has been wheelchair-bound since 1987, when he was injured in a car accident on the night of his high school graduation dance.

Nicholson's wheelchair is outfitted with special wide tires to limit the damage to courses and he always brings someone along to putt for him to avoid taking his chair on the greens.

"There is more damage caused by divots than by my tires." Nicholson said.

Robert Chenier, owner of the golf club, said, the greens were soft due to rain yesterday.

"We agreed that they were not to go on the greens with the wheelchair or with power carts because it would cause too much damage," Chenier said. "On the second hole, I asked my marshal to ask him to move. He apologized and he went back to the clubhouse. All his friends were frustrated and didn't want to go back on the green. His friends were more upset than him."