'The ultimate competitor': Hoban senior Kord Ready succeeds in golf with prosthetic leg

Kord Ready brings a sense of humor everyday to the classroom and to the boys golf team at Archbishop Hoban High School.

He also brings a unique perspective and knows how to deal with adversity that does not involve academics or athletics.

Ready, 17, celebrated Senior Day on Sunday with teammates Jack Vojtko and Charlie Hite during the Hoban Invitational at the Firestone Country Club West Course in Akron.

Ready's path is different than Vojtko and Hite's.

Hite and Vojtko have both of their legs.

Ready has his right leg and a prosthetic left leg after an accident when he was 4 years old.

"I was sledding," Ready said. "I hit a tree and then my cast was too tight."

Ready suffered a broken left leg and an infection developed under his cast unbeknownst to anyone. The decision was made to amputate part of his left leg.

"Sometimes it is hard to find my leg in the morning," Ready said. "I have to hop around my house and find my leg."

Ready joked that he lost his left leg to a "shark attack."

Hoban coaches Quinn Parker and Bob Wilson are amazed at how Ready perseveres.

Ready can hit the ball 315 to 320 yards off a tee and regularly scores in the 70s. He averaged a score of 80.0 per 18-hole match this season as a senior after averaging 81.5 as a junior, 82.6 as a sophomore and 90.7 as a freshman.

"Think of the adversity he has faced in his life and overcome," Wilson said. "It is like, so you hit a bad golf shot. So what. ... Did he tell you his favorite restaurant by the way? It is IHOP."

Hoban senior Kord Ready is a quick study on golf course

Ready, who said he started playing golf competitively at the beginning of summer heading into eighth grade at Seton Catholic School in Hudson, now is succeeding in his fifth year with the sport.

Ready has played mostly on Hoban's Varsity B Team during the past four years. He has also occasionally contributed to the Hoban Varsity A Team, including at Firestone Country Club on Sunday when Hoban won the team title ahead of St. Xavier, Jackson, Upper Arlington, St. Ignatius, Dublin Coffman, Springboro, Moeller, St. Charles and Dublin Jerome.

Hoban has placed first in 12 out of 16 tournaments this season, including Tuesday in a Division I sectional tournament at Good Park in Akron. The Knights finished second in the four tournaments they didn't win.

"I worked with some people and got it right, and they adapted my swing for me," Ready said. "Playing with these guys definitely pushed me to get better."

Wilson, the Hoban Varsity B coach, said Ready is "inspirational."

"I have coached him for four years and I have watched basically every round of golf he has played in high school," Wilson said. "Not only does he inspire me, he inspires everybody who plays around him. He is the consummate student-athlete. His sportsmanship and the way he treats other players is fantastic.

"I have had an endless number of parents from opposing schools come up to me over the years and tell me how impressed they are with his game, the way he comports himself on the golf course. He is one of those one-in-a-million kids. He is not handicapped at all. The rest of us should aspire to be what he is."

Hoban senior Kord Ready capable of playing well without prosthetic leg

Wilson and Parker said each year as Ready grows, his prosthetic needs to be adjusted or he needs to get a new prosthetic. There is an acclimation period that follows so that he can walk around.

"One story I always like to tell about him that I think emulates what he is all about and how gutsy he is is last year when we were playing a tournament at Portage Country Club," Wilson said. "It was one of our sponsored tournaments. He came to me about the middle of the round and said: 'Hey, is my score counting?' Because in high school we count the best four scores and we throw out the fifth score. I said to him: 'You are absolutely going to count. You are like second.'

"He said 'my leg is really hurting and I was thinking about withdrawing, but I don't want to let the team down.' What he said to me next, and I will never forget this for the rest of my life, 'Ok, can I take my leg off because i think it will feel better?' I went 'huh.' I said 'how are you going to play?' He said 'Oh, I can play.' He took his orthotic off and threw it in the back of my cart and begins to hop on one leg. He finished playing that round on one leg hopping around the golf course."

Ready utilized a cart last year because he was healing from a surgery and had a lot of scarring. This year he does not use a cart.

"He would hop from the cart to the tee and then hop from the tee to the cart," Wilson said. "... The very first hole he played at Portage like that was a 200-yard Par 3 and he stood there on one leg with a four iron and hit the ball to 10 feet of the pin. The group behind him were like what? When he moved on up, all of these kids are trying to swing a gold club on one leg and not fall over."

Parker, the Hoban Varsity A coach, lauded Ready as "an absolute competitor" and "a super tough kid."

"He played the last six holes [at Portage Country Club] without his prosthetic leg to shoot 82," Parker said. "He is the ultimate competitor and wants to do the very best he can. He shot 77 [Sunday at Firestone West], which was great. He was our low man last year at Firestone with a 74. He is a super kid. He doesn't want anyone to give him anything for having a prosthetic leg. He wants to be considered just like everyone else and that is how we have treated him for four years."

Teammates appreciate what Kord Ready brings to Hoban boys golf team

Vojtko, 18, said he started playing golf at the age of 4 knows all about the difficulty that a golf course can present on any given day.

Vojtko, an Ohio State University recruit who lives in Stow, said he first met Ready when they were freshmen at Hoban. With Hudson and Stow being neighboring communities, they get together often nowadays.

"Kord is probably my best friend," said Vojtko, who a shot a 64 to earn the medalist honor Sunday at Firestone.

"We golf with each other over the summer. Me, Kord and Ray Dress play all the time. Seeing his game get better and better is really special. He is a great player and a great kid. It is fun to play with him. He is always good to be around.

"... He acts like every other person on the course. He doesn't feel bad about it. He jokes about it. He has one of the best mentalities I know of anybody. He has a lot going for him. He is confident and that has helped him through."

Ready has a 3.6 GPA at Hoban and said he might go to college at Dayton where his brother Luke Ready is a freshman. Luke Ready graduated from Hoban earlier this year and was a lacrosse standout and a reserve in football for the Knights.

"Kord has a lot of will and doesn't give up," Hoban junior Chris Pollak said. "He has a really strong mental game and is out there having fun. He is a very positive, outgoing kid. He is fun to be around, fun to hang around and makes this fun."

Hoban junior Braden Herstich added that Ready "definitely uplifts a lot of guys."

"His humor helps everyone out, especially when they are down, and then obviously on the golf course, he is a good player," Herstich said.

Michael Beaven can be reached at mbeaven@thebeaconjournal and is on Twitter at @MBeavenABJ.

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Archbishop Hoban senior golfer Kord Ready succeeds with prosthetic leg