Man urges return of golf arm

Houston Chronicle ^ | 3/20/02 | HARVEY RICE

[Tumbleweed_Connection]

Losing his arm the second time wasn't nearly as bad as losing it the first time, but golfer Larry Alford still wants it back.

Alford, 28, was a member of the McCullough High School golf team in 1991 when his Corvette slammed into a retaining wall at high speed, hurling him from the car and severing his left arm below the elbow.

With the help of a one-of-a-kind prosthetic arm designed especially for golf, he fought his way back to the golf course and still nourished the hope that someday he would make the PGA tour.

Someone dealt those hopes a blow at about 3 a.m. Monday by stealing Alford's black, 1997 Ford Expedition from his gated apartment complex in The Woodlands. The prosthetic arm, which took two years to build, was in the SUV along with golf equipment, two bicycles and a hook Alford uses to drive.

"Ten years ago when I lost my arm, the city of Houston, family and friends had faith in me that was so great that I was able to overcome the loss of my arm," Alford said Tuesday. "The loss of a fake arm is a lot easier to overcome."

Yet even Alford, known for his irrepressible optimism, acknowledged that the loss of his golf arm is a financial as well as career-threatening setback.

"Keep the car, guys," he said. He just wants his golf arm back.

Whoever took the car threw out Alford's golf caps near Rayford Road and Sawdust Road, then headed south on the Hardy Toll Road, where the prepaid Easy Tag registered electronically at the toll booth at about 3 a.m., he said.

The hook for driving cost about $6,000. The custom golfing arm cost about $10,000, but probably is worth closer to $25,000 because of its special refinements, said Ted Muilenburg, owner of Muilenburg Prosthetics and Orthotics of Houston.

Alford has an older arm he plans to use when he hosts a charity golf tournament Monday, but it's not as good as the one that was stolen.

Muilenburg said, "The old style is wobbly and is not as consistent."

He said Alford would not be able to play as well with the spare, which needs an upgrade that will cost at least $1,600.

"If this one breaks, Larry will be out of business," Muilenburg said. "They have stolen his chance for a career right now."

"I hope that someone finds the one that is stolen," he said. "It might take me two years to make another one."

Alford is known as the "The One-Armed Bandit," a professional name he uses to obtain bookings as host of corporate and charity golf tournaments.

Displaying the same refusal to succumb to despair that helped him recover from his injuries 10 years ago, he said, "Hey, baby, I can play one-handed.

"I go back to work, with or without my arm," Alford said about the charity tournament Monday.

He said he has 150 tournaments booked through October.

Alford asked that anyone with information about the arm contact him through his Web site at thebandit.net.

Detective Dan Lafferty, a Shenandoah officer attached to the Montgomery County Auto Theft Task Force, said there is some hope that the arm will be recovered because it has little value to anyone except Alford.

"I don't know how they could make any money off that," he said.