A beaming smile from David Watts of South Africa, the latest winner on the G4D Tour, in the Singapore Classic on February 7.
His score of 5-under for two rounds doesn’t lie, nor in fact do the leaderboards for the first 10 tournaments of this groundbreaking series for the best golfers with a disability (G4D stands for ‘golf for the disabled’) staged by the DP World Tour.
Almost exactly one year on from the G4D Tour’s launch, excellent performances have been recorded from golfers who have all qualified to play through the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD) – having acquired their ranking points principally through 100-plus world ranked events around the globe.
The DP World Tour worked closely with EDGA (formally the European Disabled Golf Association) to create the G4D Tour on February 21 last year, and EDGA remains a valued partner in its delivery. The G4D Tour schedule has so far taken in the UK, Australia, Singapore, Spain, Germany, Ireland and the United Arab Emirates: we are now three events into the 2023 nine-tournament list, which includes the exciting prospect of the inaugural ‘G4D Open’ run by The R&A and DP World Tour in May.
While various factors play into this successful start at the top of the G4D pyramid, the decades of experience the DP World Tour brings in staging major international golf events ensured that all the building blocks were in place for the fledgling tour to make an impact in its first season of seven events in 2022. This factor, combined with each G4D Tour event being played in the same week as the corresponding DP World Tour event, has helped create highly positive media coverage for the golfers involved – spreading awareness quickly.
England’s Kipp Popert has been the outstanding player with five superb victories out of the 10, but there have actually been six different winners from five countries, and 27 players from 14 nations competing – with their highs and lows reported on social media, television and in the written word. The six winners include Popert, Mike Browne (England), Tommaso Perrino (Italy), Rasmus Lia (Sweden), Juan Postigo (Spain) and recent champion David Watts. The winning scores across the 10 events so far mount up to 13-under par; golf handicaps among the players range from ‘plus’, scratch, to a maximum of 3.4.
G4D Tour highlight packages feature across the DP World Tour global feed, which is served to broadcasters in 165 different countries. Each highlight showcases standout shots and action across both days of play. As for the 2022 G4D Tour Series Finale @ DP World Tour Championship, the DP World Tour produced a 45-minute highlights package that was shared and aired with all broadcast partners.
Such coverage has been beneficial for the leading golfers involved, who have all worked so hard on their games to qualify through the WR4GD, but it will also further encourage other talented golfers who are looking to rise further up the World Ranking to qualify and challenge the current crop of established players. Equally and importantly, it can also grab the attention of a great many more people with a disability, or their family and friends, who might consider trying the game for the first time.
That’s the view of all at EDGA, the not-for-profit association which is, with the help of its partners, creating a structured ‘player pathway’ for golfers from its now worldwide membership of 38 national federations. The EDGA team of staff and volunteers has worked hard to ensure this pathway is built up from an ever-stronger base as the aim is to encourage 500,000 new players with a disability into the game. During the last year, applications for the necessary WR4GD or Access passes to play in events haven’t just come from existing players. Nearly 25% of requests have come from brand new players or returning golfers at the very start of the competitive pathway. Many of those people will have seen the extensive coverage of the G4D Tour in the media.
EDGA President Tony Bennett explains: “The wonderful nature of the player pathway is it caters for everyone with a disability who wants to try golf. For some this could be first putts and chips to sample the game, to others who simply want to participate socially, up to those who have the competitive drive to battle it out on the EDGA Tour, in the World Ranking, and on the G4D Tour thanks to our partners the DP World Tour.
“The G4D Tour is also a hugely important showcase to demonstrate to other golfers with a disability how far they can go by reaching their potential. The 100-plus ranked tournaments, approximately half of which are EDGA Tour events, all feed into the World Ranking. But another superb element of the G4D Tour is that aspiring golfers in regular EDGA Tour events will be teeing it up with the likes of Kipp, Mike, Tommaso, Rasmus, Juan and David: players who have all cut their teeth in these tournaments. The G4D Tour is at the pinnacle, spreading awareness of golf for the disabled, ‘G4D’, while we are encouraging a great many more golfers who are all at very different stages of their journey.”
Only one G4D Tour golfer has played all 10 events so far: Perrino, who won last August’s G4D Tour @ ISPS HANDA World Invitational in Northern Ireland. Over the same year, the 41 year-old from Livorno played EDGA Tour events in six countries, and is known to have been a tireless source of encouragement for the Italian and other players present at these tournaments.
U.S. golfer Rob Walden played off a handicap of 2 when in 2016 he lost most of four fingers on his right hand in an accident with a model aeroplane. He returned to golf after rehabilitation and his dedication led him to improve his golf handicap to scratch with his left hand dominant. Rob made his G4D Tour debut just recently in Singapore. He says: “This has been a goal of mine since I started playing in adaptive golf events two years ago, and naturally I’m very excited and honoured to be taking part… Golf gives me endless joy and focus and a goal to show others that no matter what life throws at you, with a positive attitude, you can persevere through anything.”
When Watts was born the ‘calf bone’ in his left leg failed to develop, and as a 10-year-old golfer he needed to build a left-handed swing to accommodate his weaker leg. In 2022, playing off a handicap of +0.4, David won three EDGA Tour events in his homeland of South Africa; coming from outside the top 350 players in the World Ranking at the start of last year, to 13th place, and qualify for his first G4D Tour event, the G4D Tour @ Hero Cup this January.
David said of his recent victory in Singapore: “It’s a lot of hours of practice and training. In golf, you’re not accountable to anyone like you are in a team sport. You’ve got to have self-discipline and you’ve got to make sacrifices. This is your reward for it. To have that moment on 18 is something I will have with me for the rest of my life.”
Due to all the recent progress and the support of the DP World Tour and The R&A, EDGA has been able to enlarge its coach education and development programmes, all with the benefit of helping national golf federations to welcome more people with a disability into the game.
With EDGA training, PGA professionals and volunteer support workers can deliver golf in an engaging and fun way through ‘EDGA359’. Part-funded by The R&A, this three-stage player pathway into golf was delivered in person to eight nations in 2022, training more than 200 coaches, volunteers and medical professionals in Poland, Belgium, South Africa, Canada, Ukraine, Norway, and Spain. In early 2023, further educational visits are scheduled to Finland, Ireland and the UAE.
Five-time G4D Tour winner, Kent’s Popert will be looking to grow his remarkable record further when the Tour next gets together in May. Kipp, who has Cerebral Palsy, underlined his credentials by finishing 3-under par on the challenging layout at Wentworth to win the G4D Tour @ BMW PGA Championship, a Rolex Series Event. Due to the media coverage, many people will have seen Kipp play and been inspired.
Kipp says: “If you listen to every successful person that has ever achieved anything… their one tip is always you can be what you want to be. And that they are there not because of how talented they were, but because they were the kid who didn’t give up.”
As the players and those behind the scenes reflect on such an important year for ‘G4D’, this has to be good advice for us all.
