Golf For the Disabled could be the next big thing in golfing circles

For the first time in the history of golf, the Golf For the Disabled (G4D) Tour was held in Africa when a two-day Championship curtain-raised the iconic Magical Kenya Open at the Par71 Muthaiga Club Golf course.

World number one Kipp Popert proved a class apart as he underlined his status as the world’s leading golfer with a disability by cruising to his ninth G4D Tour title.

The Englishman opened the two-round event at Muthaiga with a five-under-par 66 and followed it up with a 69 on Tuesday to finish five shots ahead of nearest challenger Australia’s Lachlan Wood.

The win was Popert’s first G4D Tour title in the 2023/24 season and his first victory on the circuit’s maiden visit to Africa; which meant the Englishman has now won across three continents, having previously ruled the roost in Europe and Australia.

But following the historic staging of the G4D Tour at the “Home of Golf” in Muthaiga, local officials and DP World Tour handlers of disability golf are thinking differently in as far as popularising the game in the country is concerned.

Jonathan Marucha, a Kenya Golf Union (KGU) Executive Committee member and chairman of Golf for the G4D revealed an ambitious plan aimed at taking this new initiative to the next level.

“We don’t have a centre of excellence at the moment but we started to focus on G4D in June last year as we prepared to deliver Africa’s maiden championship on DP World Tour.

Before that, we had golfers with disabilities represent the country and win medals. Nevertheless, the real focus started when we formed the G4D committee in Kenya.”

Marucha, who is also the vice chairman at the Railways Golf Club in Nairobi, believes the essence for now is to ensure Kenya hosts more gigantic tournaments like the one held at Muthaiga recently in the next two years.

Marucha expounded: “The KGU G4D Committee is very enthusiastic about this new initiative. We are proud as Kenyans to have hosted the first tournament in Africa.

This serves as an avenue to whip up the enthusiasm of the disabled community to embrace it.

There were many lessons learned from our first event at Muthaiga and the objective is to now start with sensitization and making the disabled fraternity feel that golf is a sport they can play just like their able-bodied counterparts.”

Marucha says the G4D player pathway in Kenya aims to cater for everyone with a disability and who wants to play golf.

“G4D Tour establishing its presence in the country is seen as the pinnacle of competition with golfers playing on the same course, and in the same week as the leading professionals on the iconic DP World Tour,” Marucha went on.

According to Roger Hawkes, director of eligibility at EDGA (formerly the European Disabled Golf Association and the International Agency that promotes disability participation in golf globally) plans are afoot to help Kenya build capacity in the world of disability golf.

Asked what the first G4D tournament in Africa means to Kenya and the world, by and large, Roger expounded: “Well, it means a lot as it is the first time Africa has hosted this event, and Kenya has become a huge part of the world, where we have organisation of the event. It just shows off that golf is inclusive and that people with disability can play the game and it should be more normal to see them grace the greens and fairways.”

“EDGA focuses on boosting awareness of the inclusive nature of golf, developing capacity within the golf industry through education and development actions, and providing opportunities for golfers with a disability throughout the player pathway. We have done it in many countries and we are proud to do it in Africa, Kenya presents a worthy platform,” Roger said.

“We wanted to do a first in the continent and we have Kenya in the DP World Tour, which is very important for the committee at KGU and the golfing fraternity in Kenya. We got other events across the world and it was appropriate that one should be in Africa.”

Roger remarked that he’s enthused by meeting a dedicated team from KGU led by Marucha “which seems to have thought a lot about inclusion”.

“They seem very keen to develop the disability golf in Kenya. Our agency has the expertise to put that in place, along with South Africa, Kenya will be leading the way in the African continent. Another key objective of EDGA is to get 500,000 people with disability to play golf globally,” Roger said.

The inaugural G4D event in Muthaiga featured the best 10 players in the world but Roger believes the game will grow in leaps and bounds in Africa after the inaugural championship at Muthaiga.

“We want countries to develop infrastructure so that players of not very high level can enjoy the sport. We hope by working with KGU, we will be able to develop golf for players with disability in Kenya and grow the numbers over time. They can get big tournaments for other players to come and play,” Roger continued.

Roger goes on to emphasise the need for Kenya to set up the infrastructure, identify talent early and give them an enabling environment to be coached and groomed.

“We have a player (Isaac Makohka) with a hearing deficit here and I have watched him drive. He’s a good player but we are different from the para and deaflympics,” he noted.

The G4D Tour was launched in 2022 as a partnership between the DP World Tour and EDGA, formerly the European Disabled Golf Association.

Now in its third season, 2023/24 has a 10-leg schedule, with a revamped format that includes both Gross and Net tournaments.

Net tournaments have been introduced to the schedule for the first time on the G4D Tour, to further opportunities for golfers with a wider spectrum of disabilities.

To select the fields for each tournament, both the Gross and Net World Rankings for Golfers with a Disability (WR4GD) will now be used.

In a further change for the new season, the leading eight male and two female players from each ranking will be invited to compete—ensuring female golfers with a disability are represented at each event.

During the event in Nairobi, winner Popert and Chris Biggins visited a Cerebral Palsy unit as part of the G4D Tour’s first visit to Africa to highlight the wide-reaching benefits of playing golf.

Popert and Biggins, who were both born with the disability, joined representatives from the DP World Tour and EDGA at Parklands Primary School in Nairobi.

More than 100 children attended the specialist centre supported by Young Jains, which is served by specialist teachers, physiotherapists and occupational therapists.

While cerebral palsy is incurable, Englishman Popert was pleased to showcase how golf can be a therapeutic and rehabilitative tool, whatever the exact nature of the condition.

“For everyone in that room, you could see how you can adapt golf to suit everyone’s needs,” said World Number One Popert, who went on to win his ninth G4D Tour title at Muthaiga Golf Club.

Popert was born with a form of cerebral palsy called spastic diplegia, which means the muscular movements in his legs are impaired.

He was born 10 weeks premature, and the spastic in the name comes from the spasticity in the muscles. “My muscles in my lower half are very tight, very contracted, which means mobility is an issue,” he said.

Baggins hopes the first touch session for the children will further fuel the growth and drive interest in opportunities in golf for the disabled in Kenya and across Africa.

American Biggins said: “If you show these kids that adaptive recreation is out there and it is something you can do, It will be much more fun than typical physical therapy.”