Last week, spring made an early visit. With temperatures soaring, a group of war veterans who have forged friendships over rounds of golf started polishing their clubs and practicing their swings, anxious for the season to begin.

But their hope of an early start was dashed when a fire broke out Wednesday morning at Button Hole golf course in Providence.

“The Providence Fire Department responded in a big way and knocked the fire down very quickly,” Executive Director Don Wright said Friday.

Despite a quick response, however, the clubhouse incurred significant smoke and water damage. It was not just the place where the clubs were stored, or the space where the golf simulator was housed. Rather, it was the place where the Veterans Golf League gathers each week during the summer to share food and company.

The rebuilding process can’t begin fast enough for Retired Cmdr. Jason Phillips of Barrington and fellow veterans in the league.

“The plan is to get operational as quickly as possible,” said Wright. Insurance adjusters and remediation experts are expected to arrive Monday and a temporary trailer will be put on site next week so that operations can resume by the end of the month. But replacing the clubhouse will take longer.

Phillips remembers being unable to sleep on July 4, 2008. He had finished a 15-month tour in Afghanistan several months earlier, yet he was still restless.

“When I came back, I was wrapped so tightly and seeing things so intensely,” he recalls. “I was having a tough time re-acclimating to regular civilian life.”

His assignment had put him in grave danger every day. He had been working with 53 Afghan colonels and generals to research creative new ways to address security and strategy in their country. They met “outside the wire,” which meant leaving the protection of the Forward Operating Base at a time when the Taliban were launching suicide bombing attacks.

That morning in 2008, he turned on the Golf Channel at 5 a.m. and started watching a piece on Tom Underdown and his organization, Fairways for Warriors.

“As soon as I finished watching that interview, I reached out to him. Amazingly, within an hour, he wrote back to me and invited me to come down to Orlando, Florida for a long weekend — which I did.”

During that trip to Florida, Phillips remembers, “I played golf with a guy who was a double amputee. I played golf with a guy who was blind. I played golf with a guy who was having such issues with PTSD that he would only go to shop at 3 o’clock in the morning at a 24-hour Wal-Mart with his service dog."

The experience was restorative, and he remembers wishing that he could replicate it for other veterans in Rhode Island.

Phillips took his idea to local college and university golf programs, where he received a lukewarm reception.

Without getting discouraged, Phillips persevered. The reaction he received from Button Hole was quite different.

“As soon as I started talking to them about it, they were completely on board with helping out. They’ve been ‘all in’ ever since.”

Wright says he embraced the idea because it “was in keeping with the spirit of Button Hole, meaning accessibility and opportunity for everybody.”

What started as an informal gathering and golf clinic has now evolved into a wide variety of programming specifically geared for veterans.

“We started it with just a few folks, and we kept at it,” said Phillips. “Don Wright has been absolutely amazing with reaching out to veterans and engaging them in positive ways.”

Veterans are encouraged to participate even if they have never played or don’t own a set of clubs. Two Thursdays a month, from April through October, they can participate in a golf clinic where they receive professional instruction, along with access to the driving range and 9-hole course.

Traditionally, a light meal has been served for veterans and their families, too — all at no charge. Phillips appreciates that Wright may order a pizza or throw a barbecue for the veterans who gather, “just so that we could sit down together at a table and share dinner."

Wright is proud of the program’s growth. “It started out as five or 10” participants, he says, “and now it’s probably averaging closer to 30 to 35. Over the course of the season we probably have about 150 veterans or family members, so it’s not always the same people each week.”

Wright and his staff have been reaching out to governmental agencies and veterans groups to get the word out, hoping the program will grow. Phillips now teaches at the Naval Preparatory School in Newport, and sometimes brings along candidates to join the veterans.

Every Wednesday from noon to 1 p.m., the course is open to veterans, free. Although word got out slowly, the number taking advantage of the free tee time is growing.

“Some of the veterans now look forward to seeing each other every Wednesday,” Wright said. “There is familiarity and friendships that have developed, which is really what it’s all about. That’s the spirit of what Commander Phillips intended to get going here.”

On Thursdays, Button Hole hosts a veterans golf league. There’s a small cost to register, but waivers are available and every participant has access to clubs, free of charge.

In July, Button Hole is the first stop in a four-day sports clinic featuring golf, sailing, surfing, biking and scuba diving for disabled veterans from all over New England. An average of 38 veterans are referred to the program by their clinicians to participate in this therapeutic event each year. They are accompanied by 100 volunteer physical therapists, nurses, doctors and clinicians, and have a wide range of challenges, from PTSD to full paralysis.

Donna Russillo, chief of voluntary service at the Providence VA Medical Center, coordinates the program. With the help of the volunteers and host sites, Russillo says that the experience is transformative. Veterans who participate “do something that they never thought that they’d ever be able to do again.”

“Through this clinic,” she says, “they learn that life doesn’t have to stop if they’ve lost a limb or have brain trauma. They are still the same person.

“Most of the veterans don’t know each other,” she adds. “They’re from all over New England.”

The sports clinic, including the day at Button Hole, bonds them with each other.

“We have had people who have refused to speak on Monday, and at the end of the week, they are leading their fellow vets in camp songs on the bus. It’s amazing.”

Veterans programs will continue at Button Hole this summer. Thankfully, the maintenance facility that shelters the grounds-keeping equipment and the paragolfer carts to assist disabled participants was unscathed.

And Phillips hopes that members of the community will step forward with donations to help Button Hole rebuild the clubhouse and expand programs for warriors. “Button Hole has made the golf course a second home for us [veterans].”

If you would like to donate to help Button Hole rebuild after the fire or to underwrite a veterans outreach program, visit buttonhole.org or send a check to One Button Hold Drive, Suite One, Providence, RI, 02909. Do you know a veteran with an interesting story? Do you offer a program or service focus on serving retired military? Are you planning an event aimed at veterans or their families? Email Mary K. Talbot at ThoseWhoServedAmerica@ gmail.com