Copyright Essentially Sports
What happens when a fun summer beach day turns into the worst trauma of your life? Ask Lulu Gribbin, the young golfer from Alabama, who, in a brutal bull shark attack in June 2024, lost her left hand and parts of her right leg. For a regular person, their life might be over, but not for Lulu. She was in her hospital bed, surrounded by nurses and IV fluids, when she decided she would continue to play golf. Appearing on the Golf Channel, Gribbin explained her reason. She wanted to play golf because that’s the only sport she could get into physically. “I wasn’t as mobile as I used to be,” she explained. “So, I couldn’t run, and I couldn’t do basketball and volleyball, which were the main sports I would do before the accident. So, I turned to golf as something to just take my mind away from the fact that I had lost two of my limbs.” The sport provided Gribbin with a newfound motivation. For someone who had to relearn walking and do basic tasks like eating, putting her clothes on, and even brushing her teeth, golf became the foundation of her comeback. She took help from her coach, Chris Biggins. Biggins himself is a nationally ranked adaptive golfer who was born with cerebral palsy. So, for Gribbin, he seemed like the perfect person to understand her struggles. ADVERTISEMENT With his help, she slowly relearned how to swing a club. At first, she played with a one-arm swing. A clip shows her standing on one foot, swinging her club with all her energy. She almost loses her balance, but the ball flies into the sky. It was a good hit, but Lulu was striving for perfection. “It is frustrating sometimes. You might not get the shot that you want every time,” Gribbin explained. “With the one-arm swing, you either hit the ball perfectly or you whiff it.” ADVERTISEMENT To overcome this, she began working with Mark McColl, a retired engineer. McColl helped her design a customized 3D-printed prosthetic golf hand. The attachment mimics wrist rotation and lets her hold the club firmly. Gribbin removed her prosthetic hand with ease, attached the golf hand, and held it up for the viewers to see. “This functions as a wrist. So it bends a little bit. And it allows me more rotation… Just more adaptive for me because it allows me to be a lot more consistent and just have a better swing overall,” she said, moving it around. Now, Lulu Gribbin could enjoy golf like before. ADVERTISEMENT Read Top Stories First From EssentiallySports Click here and check box next to EssentiallySports “I’ve been filled with so much joy…had so many opportunities. I’ve met so many cool people. And it’s just a fun sport to play,” she said, beaming with a smile. Among the many cool people, Justin Thomas and Rickie Fowler are also included. Earlier this year, Lulu Gribbin was invited to the WM Phoenix Open. She walked alongside Thomas, watching him play and making a birdie putt for him. Her day only got better when, on the par-3 16th hole, Fowler invited her to take a swing. In the end, she walked away with his putter as a gift. “There aren’t very many kids her age that’d be as positive. You’re affecting and inspiring more people than you realize.” Justin Thomas said afterwards. ADVERTISEMENT “Being able to experience that with two golfers that I look up to the most is an experience that I will never forget,” she admitted on Golf Channel. Now, she is trying to help others like her so that they, too, can experience the same. The Lulu Strong Foundation With an aim to help and support amputees, Lulu Gribbin founded the Lulu Strong Foundation. It’s a nonprofit that works towards advancing prosthetic research, with a focus on funding the development of tech that can improve both mobility and quality of life for such people. ADVERTISEMENT “The goal is to fund research for advancing technology. So, such as VR technology that I use in the hospital,” she said. “…To better enhance prosthetics, make them more durable, make them lighter, and make them more functional.” These will not just help her normal prosthetic hand become more efficient, but also the golf hand. Many of them are not functional and can easily break. Hence, the aim is to allow the doctors to research and make the necessary advancement. Like Gribbin, many have been through the same ordeal. A boating accident left Jordan Thomas an amputee at the age of 16, the same age as Lulu. But despite that, he continued playing golf and went on to win the 2022 US Adaptive Open men’s multiple limb amputee category. Then, there is Chad Pfeifer, who won the same event. He had lost his leg in combat during the 2007 Iraq War. Beyond all this, Lulu Gribbin also spearheads Lulu’s Law. It is a proposed federal alert system, which would notify any beachgoer in real time if a shark attack occurs in the nearby area. Gribbin drew this idea from her own personal experience, as a shark attack had taken place just 90 minutes before her accident. If she had known about it, she would likely have been out of danger. Lulu Gribbin has made it her mission for others not to go through what she did. On her Instagram account, @lulug.strong, she continues to share her story.
