When he lost his arm, John Brough figured he lost his golf game.

Brough, 48, of Butler lost an arm in an accident nine years ago. A golfer since age 10, he carried a 6-handicap during his prime.

"I started playing shortly after the accident, but I couldn't play well," Brough said. "With one arm, I was shooting in the 50's for nine holes.

"That wasn't for me. It's hard to take when you're used to shooting so much better. I was ready to quit the game."

But a couple of months later, Brough got a prosthetic arm and his game began to improve. By the following year, he was playing in tournaments again.

Brough has brought his game back to a 9-handicap. He won the Eastern Amputee Regional Golf Championship in 2003 in Carlisle. This summer, he will be playing in his fourth National Amputee Golf Association Championship, Aug. 23-26 at Bethpage State Park in Farmingdale, N.Y.

Brough finished among the top 10 at the national event in Minnesota in 2003, carding an 86, 88 and 81.

"That's not good enough to win at that level," he said. "Players come from all over the place - Tokyo, South Africa, etc. - to compete in that national.

"They practice three or four times a week, play five times a week … I'm only on the course two or three times a week."

Brough describes himself as a regular golfer. He doesn't even feel like he's handicapped.

He thanks amputee golf events for that.

"I've seen guys golf with one leg, walk up to the ball on crutches, drop the crutches and hit the ball, using no prosthetics," he said. "And they hit the ball pretty good.

"I saw one guy play golf with two stumps, no hands at all. His stumps were maybe nine or 10 inches long. I still don't know how he does it. Watching the guy putt was amazing. Watching the guy drink a beer was amazing.

"How can somebody like me feel handicapped after playing golf with guys like that? … I can't," Brough added.

Brough learned about the Eastern Amputee Golf Association through his wife, who is a mail carrier.

"She was delivering mail to Jack Swidzinski, who has been doing this longer than I have, and noticed some correspondence about it," Brough said. "She asked Jack about it, he talked to me and I became part of it.

"The amputee tournaments are like family reunions. I see these people once a year - at the tournament - and we catch up with each other."

Brough competed in the 12th Pittsburgh Amputee Golf Championship at Saxon Golf Course over the weekend. He has finished second in that event on numerous occasions, but has never won it.

He lost on a tiebreaker to Swidzinski last year after carding a 74 on the first day.

He shot an 80 Friday, sharing the lead with Ed Krayewski. He finished with an 80-83-163, six strokes behind Krayewski - and in second place again.

"I really wanted to win my flight at the Butler Eagle Amateur Open last year," Brough said. "I finished second there, too."

Pittsburgh Amputee Golf Championship director Mike Oehling of Freeport doesn't know Brough well, but knows how he's maintained a solid level of play for so many years.

"John is such a strong golfer because he plays a lot, he practices and he keeps the game fun," Oehling said.

"Once you adjust to the prosthetic, golf is pretty much golf," Brough said. "It's a little different for me on down-hill lies or shots where I would normally choke up on the club.

"The prosthetic is locked into one position, it's the same length all the time. Since I can't choke up on the club, I have to rely on muscle memory, on how I used to swing the club to carry so many yards."

But an amputee tournament compared to a regular tournament?

"It's the same thing," Brough said. "The competition's still there, the golf courses are still tough - and you still want to win."