EDGA GOLFERS FIRST PODCAST

This latest EDGA article is on G4D player Graham Freeman of Belgium, a tough international competitor and also a true lover of the game. As we wrote this feature, Graham, his wife Naomi and their dog Poppy were all on a month-long golfing road-trip, stretching from home in Antwerp all the way up to Scotland and St Andrews, then south to London Golf Club, before heading west to the Celtic Manor Resort in Wales for The 2026 G4D Open.

Graham wears his heart on his sleeve as a player, and has encouraged many other people to play the game.

This week, he is one of 80 players from more than 20 countries who have qualified to play in The G4D Open in Wales, the fourth staging of this Championship by The R&A and DP World Tour, supported by EDGA.

The man known as ‘the Belgian Bear’ was a Champion of The G4D Open's ‘Sitting 2’ Sport Class in 2023. We know Graham will look to repeat this feat in Wales and we wish all the competitors well for their challenge ahead.

Chris Foster didn’t even focus on golf until he was 21, a left-leg amputee since the age of nine. Today, aged 36, he is an emerging professional golf coach, learning from some of the best minds in the business, and he is also a fine competitor. 

He believes golf is a fantastic sport for people with a disability who are looking to try the game for the health benefits, personal challenge and social connection. Chris loves coaching at Hanbury Manor Golf Club in southern England, and he is a member of the England Golf Disability Performance Squad this year.   

Chris says: “For me, golf is for everyone. It’s the only sport that three generations of family can play together, whether it’s disabled, able bodied, male or female. No other sport is like that. The social aspect is amazing but also being outside and enjoying whatever the day brings.

“I love to help others to enjoy the game! I love seeing players thrive when something clicks. Whether it’s a new idea or a new skill learnt. Watching golfers develop at whatever level is why I wanted to coach…”

Enjoy Chris’s story here with EDGA now. 

“Golf taught me that nothing is ever guaranteed,” says Melody Roccaz.

“Golf is such a mental game — you have to stay confident until the very last shot, even in the worst situations. You can’t give up on yourself,” the 23-year-old French golfer adds. “Over time, I learned that confidence isn’t something you either have or don’t have — it’s something you build through experience.”

It would take her own inner steel to adapt her game over the years when the degenerative neurological health condition Melody was born with threatened to erode her youthful confidence.

“Growing up… I’ve learned to adapt and continue pursuing my passion for golf,” says Melody. “Looking ahead, I want to be a champion. It’s the biggest part of my life…”

Melody has already tasted victory for France in the 2024 EGA European Team Championship, while using her voice and actions to attract more girls and women to the game. She is already a champion: enjoy her story with EDGA here. 

Adam Dalton, a 20-year-old golfer from Jersey in the Channel Islands, is fast-becoming a trailblazer in the world of disability sport. The challenges he faces have fuelled his determination to succeed, on and off the golf course.

Born with congenital limb deficiency (CLD), Adam first picked up a golf club nearly a decade ago, during what began as a casual trip to the driving range. “We weren’t sure how I was going to do it,” he recalls, “but straightaway I tucked the club under my arm, and I was loving it from the first ball I hit.” 

That moment of joy sparked a passion that would go on to shape Adam’s future. Enjoy his story with EDGA here. 

Standing at the top of the ski slope is a man who is blind, but he is ready to make that first move forward and fly down the mountain. It’s his choice of course, and he knows that in some ways he is fortunate to have a choice. 

After his years in the British Army, for Kevin Alderton this was a leap of faith, but then so was everything on leaving military service, following being blinded in an attack after helping a member of the public in danger. 

We talk about playing golf as a person with sight loss, and how remarkable it is that he can play well (on a good day).

Kevin says: “Everything is achievable if you apply yourself. You need to call on the resilience that you have; what you have done before you can do again.

“Being out in nature is a great tonic; golf can provide fitness, a boost to mental health, it can help people with PTSD and there is of course the social interaction to look forward to.”  

Enjoy Kevin’s story with EDGA here.

Valentyn Vodolazskyi lived a peaceful life until war came to his home city of Popasna, in the Luhansk region of Ukraine. 

Valentyn was born with hip dysplasia and would in 2022 need his left hip replaced. What happened next is a remarkable story about first survival from war and then finding a way to look ahead with spirit and generosity to the future. 

Leading the way in his rehabilitation, golf’s offering of a sanctuary and a personal challenge in the most difficult of times is a great example of how this sport can help people from all backgrounds to get the most out of the life ahead. 

With great thanks to the Ukrainian Golf Federation and to Valentyn Vodolazskyi himself, EDGA shares his story here.  

“Golf doesn’t care about your age, background, or physical condition. It meets you where you are. That’s the beauty of the game: it’s universal, inclusive, and deeply personal at the same time.”

Mexico’s Bernardo García Infante firmly believes the game has the power to change the lives of others, and he speaks from experience.   

He found the courage in his late twenties – after being born with a compromised left arm – to face losing the use of his right arm in a motorbike accident in 2015. How did he beat depression, regain confidence and find fresh purpose in life after this?

Bernardo says he was able to rebuild himself, shot after shot, after his first discovery of the game in 2020. All this with his left side hitting the ball. The left side and the left arm – once seen as his weakness – is now his ally.

Enjoy Bernardo’s remarkable story here with EDGA today.

“I thought that was it for me, golf was over for me. I couldn’t stand, so how could I play? It’s amazing how it’s changed again, so you should never give up.” 

Aged 62, Ken Powell’s life was altered dramatically in 2021 when he was left paralysed from the waist down following surgery. 

Remarkably (or should that read outstandingly?), at the time of writing Ken had just become a single figure golfer again, with a Handicap Index of 9.5 no less, reducing from his first handicap when starting again of 27, in 2022. His secret? (Apart from all the guts and hard work, and the lessons from a PGA coach.) He replies: “Well, I have very well educated hands, right from being a boy, the hands play such an important part in the game.” 

Enjoy this EDGA story of how Ken used those well-drilled hands to learn all his shots on England’s breezy south coast, creating a love of the game that remains crucial to this day. 

In this latest EDGA podcast, recent winner of the G4D Tour @ FedEx Open de France and qualifier to play in the G4D Tour’s finale in Mallorca at the end of October, Mark Clougherty explains why golf means so much to him after difficult challenges. 

For the Northern Ireland-based player, only returning to golf in late 2023, the game has already provided a haven from the hurly burly and the white noise away from the course. He is not the first golfer to have PTSD and to find a growing calm amid all the constituent layers of the game. 

Mark says: “Golf means everything to me now, not just getting me out of the house, keeping me active amongst like-minded people, but also to play well and have a great focus on the time ahead. Looking ahead is important. Playing EDGA and other events, I feel I can relax and just go for it, which is a great place to be.”

Enjoy Mark’s story with EDGA here today. 

When Stephen Alderson – better known as Spud – and his mate-turned-caddie, Trent Blucher, received an invitation to compete on the G4D Tour and subsequently boarded a plane to Spain in October 2024, Trent thought he was simply tagging along to support a mate. He had a week off work, a golf bag to lug, and no expectation beyond helping Spud through a one-off opportunity. 

Neither of them could have imagined what awaited in Sotogrande, southern Spain. They left Adelaide with little more than hope, a sense of adventure, and the nervous thrill of an unexpected invitation. They returned with a trophy, international headlines, and a story that would carry them to places Spud had never thought possible.

In this edition of the EDGA Podcast we give you insights into the changes Trent has made to help his good mate Spud to realise his dreams.