KINSALE, Ireland — A driving downpour at Old Head Golf Links soaked through Tim Lang’s rain suit, blew in his face as he lined up daunting shots along cliffs above the gray Atlantic, and made it difficult to hold his ground on a prosthetic leg in the wet grass. Nobody should have been playing in such conditions, but on this October day, they made Lang feel more alive.

On the same date in 2006, Lang, then a Marine sergeant, was seriously injured when the Humvee in which he was the turret gunner struck a roadside bomb in Iraq. His right leg was shattered, and it was eventually amputated. Two of his closest friends were killed in the explosion.

The anniversary of a soldier’s injury is called his alive day, a kind of second birthday. It is typically reserved for contemplation and remembrance of comrades who were not so fortunate.

On his alive day this year, Lang, 26, played golf in the manner in which he has decided to live: fiercely, with grace and determination in the face of adversity — even if the adversity is stormy weather in which the wind pushes a few balls toward the ocean. But if a combination of training, luck and an unwillingness to die saved Lang in combat, golf, of all things, helped save him when he returned home.