A grandpa's love for golf and a challenged athlete's desire to excel brings her to U.S. Adaptive Open

Life is not a linear path. Ask anyone who’s dealt with setbacks and heartbreaks. Perspective comes with a cost: through time and trials.

And as we get hit with life’s roadblocks, it’s fascinating to see when acceptance and even a change of heart comes into play for an individual.Kelly Gorman was dealt a disability at birth that some doctors said wouldn’t allow her to ever walk, and yet she has not let it stop her from playing a non-adaptive sport, lacrosse, in high school at an extremely high level while capturing six golf club championships as an adult..Now that’s embracing what life has dealt you.

Gorman, from Pelham, N.Y., will compete in her first U.

S. Adaptive Open beginning Monday at Woodmont Country Club in Rockville, Md., in the division for those with lower limb impairment.

The William & Mary grad was born with a clubfoot and arthrogryposis, a condition that causes joint stiffness and underdeveloped muscles. To this day, the 31-year-old still has no control of her toes and feet, which are much smaller than most.Despite undergoing five surgeries on her feet and knees as a child, the second youngest of five active kids got intensely connected in sports, learning golf from her grandfather and, most notably, playing goalie for her Hackley High School lacrosse team in Tarrytown, N.

Y., that won three state championships.“Playing sports is how my family and I bonded,” Gorman recalls with a smile.

“Kelly never saw herself as any different than her siblings,” Gorman’s mother Lorri says. “Whatever she didn’t have in speed she made up for in grit and found another way around it.”Lacrosse was a way to toughen up with twin sister Trish.

“Trish was the center, I was the goalie and it worked out well because she would shoot on me and I would practice my saves and, man, we were lucky to be a part of amazing teams together,” Gorman says.How does someone with a disability in their legs even find a way to play on a traditional lacrosse high school team?“Lacrosse is uniquely situ