EDGA GOLFERS FIRST PODCAST

Welcome to this edition of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast. This week we are at the 150th Open Championship at St Andrews. Although we know that golf for the disabled is relatively new, compared to the 150 years of the Open, the first association explicitly formed for golfers with a disability was set up in 1932 just down the road from here in Glasgow. We also know that golfers with a disability have played the game for much longer, with players such as Dunblane golfer Robert Martin, a high leg amputee, who won his club championship in 1923 and 1924.

In this episode, we tell you about the first golfer with a disability that EDGA has entered into the Junior Open. We also give you a flavour of the Champions Celebration at the Open Championship, where four EDGA Players teed it up with the champions of golf over four holes at the iconic Old Course. As always, we have a sneak preview of this week’s EDGA Profile which features Rich White, who found EDGA due to seeing the G4D Tour on Sky Sports. So let’s get to episode 63 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

G4D Community

The first formal community of golfers with a disability was the Society of One Arm Golfers, formed in 1932. As the name implies, it had a very narrow focus on players using one arm. According to the society, “Membership is open to all persons whose non-playing hand or arm is physically impaired and as a result play golf with only one arm”.

Several other associations were soon set up. In the United States of America, the National Amputee Golf Association was formed in 1954 and others around the world followed. Fast forward to today, G4D is in most magazines and on screens across the globe.

The Junior Open

Russell Aide became EDGAs first representative at The R&As Junior Open, played at the Monifieth Links just north of St Andrews. Russell, who hails from Stirling, not the one in Scotland, but rather the one in Ontario, Canada, came over and found a golf course very different from the one he is used to back home. At 15 years of age and standing 6 feet 5 inches tall, Russell is head and shoulders above many of his competitors, but that height advantage is not too helpful when the wind blows as it can so often do on the East Coast. Russell struggled to an eight-over par 80 in the first of three days and is hoping for better things as the tournament progresses.

The Celebration of Champions

Four golfers with a Disability were invited by The R&A to compete in the Champions Celebration on the Monday ahead of the 150th Open Championship. The event took place in front of thousands of spectators over the 1st, 2nd, 17th and 18th holes of the Old Course. Juan Postigo partnered three Open Champions, Mark Calcavecchia, Jordan Spieth and Ian Baker-Finch. Jennifer Sraga was paired with Henrik Stenson, Mark O'Meara, and the 2021 Latin America Amateur Champion Aaron Jarvis. Monique Kalkman played with three legends of the Open, in Gary Player, Sir Bob Charles and Scotland’s very own Sandy Lyle. The last of the EDGA players on deck was Kipp Popert, who had Stewart Cink, Paul Lawrie and five-time Open champion Tom Watson as company on this special day.

In a world that too often teaches people to look away from anything or anyone different, people with disability so often feel excluded or even invisible. Yesterday those eyes were perhaps a little envious and totally focussed on our four athletes as they competed with the best.

With the season in full swing in the Northern hemisphere, apologies for the slightly late publication of this week’s episode of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast. This week is a five shorter with news of further updates to the ranking, a short recap of this week's G4D Tour event at the Horizon Irish Open, a mention of the upcoming RSM event at the fabulous Rockliffe Hall and an update on the players currently in the position to contest the RSM European Play-off series for net and Stableford players. We also have a sneak preview of this week’s EDGA Profile which features David Reaney who is just getting started on his EDGA journey. So let’s get to episode 62 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

To ensure the WR4GD is truly representative of the current competitive environment, event ageing will be introduced to better reflect and reward players’ current form. This will start at the beginning of January 2023. Points and divisors from events within the most recent 52 weeks of a player’s record will count at full value. From there on, event points and divisors will reduce proportionately, approximately two per cent, per week before they drop out after 104 weeks.

Please note that the full points received will remain on the players playing record and you will not see these points decrease in value. Divisor and Average points total change week to week to reflect the ageing process. An example of ageing can be thought of as when Player A has received 10 points at an event.

In weeks 1-52, the 10 points will be worth exactly the same and so the divisor will remain at 1. In week 53 the 10 points earned will be worth 9.8 points, and the divisor will reduce to 0.98. By week 78 the 10 points earned will be worth 5 points, and the divisor will reduce to 0.5. By the time we get to week 103 the 10 points earned will be worth 0.2 points, and the divisor will reduce to 0.02, before dropping off altogether in week 104.

Congratulations to all those who competed in the G4D Tour Horizon Irish Open at the Mount Juliet golf course. Mike Browne led the field with a fantastic two under par on day one and then had to sit on the lead for not only the evening but well into the afternoon of the following day after heavy rain had played havoc with the course. Eventually almost seven hours after he was scheduled to tee off Mike hit his opening drive and recorded two bogies in the first three holes. Undaunted he soon steadied the ship and held off any pretenders to claim the victory with a level par total over the two days.

For those who have played in an RSM golf day, there is no need for me to explain how good the day is. This year the venue is the fabulous Rockliffe Hall and with our team, on hand all the players have a great opportunity to chat about their games, make new friends and compete in their respective divisions for monetary prizes in the gross division and vouchers in the net and Stableford divisions. This year the RSM day is followed by the RSM Gross series which also has net and Stableford divisions and is another chance to earn points to get into the much anticipated RSM European Play-offs at Stratford later in the year.

The leading eight players in position to be invited for the net playoffs, are Juan Postigo, Jari Vihanne, Andre Toth, Charles Henri-Quelin, Mike Jones, Filip Rataj, Pierre Dumas and Petri Takunnen. 

The Stableford division is led by Petri Partanen, Timo Pessi, Phillipe Petit, Magnus Grimberg, Mirsolav Halmo, Markku Korpimaki, Jacopo Luce, and Jean-Yves Padioleau. 

With just a few weeks left to qualify for the play-offs expect some movers from those trying to get into the top 8 spots of each division.

Welcome to this week’s episode of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast. This week’s episode comes from Thonock Park in Gainsborough, the site of the inaugural EDGA PING Open, an RSM Gross Series event. We start with a short recap of the event at Thonock before looking back at the 2022 EGA European Team Championship for golfers with a disability and a sneak preview of this week’s EDGA Profile which features Hayato Yoshida from Japan. So let’s get to episode 61 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

The Karsten Lakes Golf Course at Thonock Park in Gainsborough was the first EDGA PING Open venue. Thonock, is the home of the European Headquarters of the leading equipment manufacturer PING proved to be a stiff test for the players who battled it out in the stableford, Net and gross divisions. The Gross series, supported by RSM with prize money for the leading two players, was close after the first round, with three players within three shots and the leader at level par. Finally, Bradley Smith took home the lion’s share of the prize money as the winner with scores of 74 and 73 for a tree over par total. Second place in a three-way card playoff went to Oliver Hirst-Greenham, beating Paul Ellison from Scotland, who took home a bonus prize from Ping and Cedric Lescut from Belgium.

The EGA European Team Championship for golfers with a disability included the teams from 13 countries who took to the course in Koksijde - Belgium. The Nations Cup is traditionally played at the same venue over the same course, and this event was contested by a further eight teams. Although the event sits on the European Golf Associations’ calendar, EDGA were fully involved in the delivery of the event, together with EGA, The Royal Belgium Federation and the club of Koksijde.

The Royal Belgium Federation team, under the direction of Johan Verbiest, did a first-class job, and he garnered the support of the golf club and their fifty-plus volunteers who went the extra mile to look after the players, officials, and guests.

Ireland was making their debut in the event and made the perfect start as Conner Stone, Adian Gresham, Alan Gaynor, and world number one in the gross ranking Brendan Lawlor took a stunning victory from a distant second place team with a score of 3 under par over the five counting rounds.

The Nations Cup was won by the host country Belgium who were also making their debut with a team that was gender-balanced with Peggy and Liliane, an essential part of the four-player team, which also included Senne and Jules. The popular winners at the Koksijde course had a week to remember, and one that shows the number of Federations getting behind the event continues to grow. Perhaps the next edition in two years will also be won by debutants as more teams start to enter the most prestigious team event played in G4D.

Hayato Yoshida’s thoughts on golf can be readily applied to most of life. He took up golf only at the age of 30, after his early years had taken twists and turns. But he is a golfer today (a PGA Professional in fact) and a philosophical one at that. He will tell you that “golf is life” and that “golf is a dialogue with yourself.

Hayato survived a horrific injury as a young man, an accident that could have damaged his life irreparably. Indeed, it wrecked his boyhood dream of playing professional baseball. However, despite the setback, Yoshida, from Kawasaki in the Greater Tokyo area of Japan, has managed to remain highly positive but also very much focused on what he can achieve in life.

You can find Hayato’s story in the Tough Love and Second Chances Podcast, which is available on most leading podcast platforms and our youtube channel, which can be found by typing edgagolf.tv into your browser.

Welcome to this week’s episode of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast. This week’s episode comes from the Green Eagle Golf Course in Hamburg, the site of the G4D Tour@the Porsche European Open. We start with a short conversation with the Tour Director, José Maria Zamora, who talks about getting the course ready for our ten EDGA players. We have a sneak preview of this week’s EDGA Profile which features Steven Crocker from England. The penultimate shot is on the recent announcement made by the International Golf Federation and the International Testing Agency regarding their newly established partnership. The IGF delegated its Anti-Doping programme to the ITA at the beginning of 2022. Finally, we close out the episode with the big news that the Ladies European Tour and the Skaftö Open will host an EDGA-LET event in Sweden during August. 

So let’s get to episode 60 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

Welcome to this week’s episode of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast. Our opening shot on this 5-shotter is the results of the Johnny Reay Classic held at Stoneleigh Deer Park in Coventry. Then we are off to talk a little about the support given by Golf Car UK, get an update on the RSM European Play-off series, a mention of the upcoming PING OPEN at Thonock Park, and finally, a snippet of this week’s EDGA Profile, that of Fredrik Fjaeraa. So let’s get to episode 59 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

Our opening stroke is a mention of the winners from the Johnny Reay Classic in Coventry. The event was the first of the RSM Gross series and had the leading man and woman from the World Ranking competing along with two others from the top ten players taking part. The gross section was won by Brendan Lawlor of Ireland with a one-under-par total, the Net section was won by Johnny Reay himself after a commanding 6 shot win with scores of 67 and 71. The Stableford division was won by Tom Doherty with 68 points over the two rounds.

The competitors could enjoy the tournament experience at the recent Johnny Reay Classic, in part due to the support given by Golf Car UK. Mobility is a crucial area for EDGA players. In many cases, players with physical disabilities, such as amputation or neurological impairments find that buggies are vital to ensure they can play or continue to enjoy golf. Golf Car UK Ltd, the UK’s largest golf buggy supplier, provided ten E-Z-GO RXV Elite Lithium golf buggies for the competitors.

To have a supportive supplier in Golf Car UK to assist in our events in England is fantastic. The high quality, environmentally-friendly vehicles align perfectly with our desire for the highest standards on the EDGA Tour, as does the professional and highly efficient service from Golf Car UK, so a big thanks to Chris and his team.

Qualification for the RSM European Play-off series is nearing the final ranking used to decide the players. The final qualification table will be published on the 17th of August 2022. The Play-off finals, which will take place over the Stratford on Avon course in England in September, will be part of an even more prestigious event than was played in the inaugural 2021 edition. We are pleased to announce that in the early running for the eight players in each category, the players are as follows:

NET Players

Juan Postigo Arce - Spain

Jari Vihanne - Finland

Charles Henri-Quelin - France

Mike Jones - Wales

Filip Rataj - Czech Republic

André Toth - Norway

Pierre Dumas - France

Petri Takkunen - Finland

STABLEFORD PLAYERS

Petri Partanen - Finland

Timo Pessi - Finland

Phillippe Petit - France

Mirolav Halmo - Slovakia

Markku Koprpimaki - Finland

Jean - Yves Padioleau - France

Rodolfo Cappellazzo - Italy

Fabrizio Gardiol - Italy

Of course, with 13 weeks and a lot of tournaments still to count, there will likely be some changes, but if you are not on the list, are from a European Country and want to get into those top eight spots, then now is the time to move up the respective rankings of Net and Stableford.

Welcome to this week's episode of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast. This four-shot episode will come from the West Midlands of England. First we head off the iconic Belfry, home of four Ryder Cups, and then on the the EDGA Tours Johnny Reay Classic, which is the first of the RSM Gross series. So let's get to episode 58 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

Welcome to this week's episode of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast has a new format, which is in line with the growing wish to have shorter forms of golf. So this four-shot episode will become our new par. That is not to say that we won't occasionally make a bogey with a slightly longer episode, or for that matter, score a birdie with a super concise edition. So let's get to episode 56 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

Drive: 

The opening shot this week lets you know that the Johnny Reay Classic part of the EDGA Tour, including the RSM Gross Series, is just a couple of weeks away. Three divisions, Gross (open to players less than 7.5 handicap, Net for players with handicaps 7.5-18.4 and Stableford for players from 18.5 and above, will be played.

The Gross Series event sponsored by RSM will feature up to three cash prizes (within the limits of amateur status) for the top finishers. The net and Stableford events will have voucher prizes, and we expect that competition in all three categories will be strong. You can enter the events at www.edgagolf.com and scroll to view events.

Approach:

This week's approach follows our Head of Development Mark Taylor's visit to South Africa. Mark, a PGA Fellow Professional, will arrive in South Africa for phase two of the coach education and development support to EDGA member federation Golf RSA supported by the Alfred Dunhill Links Foundation. The visit will help up skill existing coaches and train a further 25 PGA of South African coaches at the SADGA offices at King David Mowbray Golf Club just outside of Cape Town.

The last time Mark visited South Africa, the Omicron strain of Covid meant that his planned two weeks visit lasted six weeks as he could not fly home. Hopefully, we will see him back with us before the middle of May.

Pitch shot:

Having missed the green, here is a neat shot from the sand.

Benedicte Finnema was 53 years-old and like many Norwegians she loved her sport; enjoyed everything about keeping fit and being an athlete. Then came a ski accident in 2016 that would have a huge impact on her life. As she lay in the hospital and then in the long hours of rehab before later finally deciding to have her leg amputated, Benedicte was able to first cope, and then take a positive view for the future, by focusing on three things: her golf, her love of kayaking at sea and a treasured friend called Ollie.

You can find Benedicte's story in the Tough Love and Second Chances Podcast, which is available on most leading podcast platforms and our youtube channel, which can be found by typing edgagolf.tv into your browser.

Tap in

So a short tap in is a call to watch out for next week's first G4D Tour event at the Betfred British Masters. The following ten players will be teeing it up on the iconic Brabazon Course at the Belfry.

Brendan Lawlor, Kipp Popert, Juan Postigo, Kurtis Barkley, Chris Biggins, Tommaso Perino, Fredrik Fjaeraa, Johan Kammerstad, Mike Browne, Daphne van Houten.

The next event is at the Porsche European Open in Hamburg, and qualifiers will be informed in just a couple of weeks. So for those who just missed out this time, there is still time to get some good rounds in to count for the Ranking.

Please keep up to speed on the event at the EDGA socials and watch out for coverage on Sky Sports and some of the leading Golf TV broadcasters.

Have fun, and I hope to see you on the course in the near future.

Welcome to this week’s episode of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast. This episode is brought to you by the Director of Tournaments for EDGA, Manon Eggermont.

As always, we have a short excerpt from the latest Tough Love and Second Chances Podcast, which features Johnny Reay from England.

We also have an update about the newly announced change to the ranking calculation which affects only the gross ranking.

So let's get to episode 56 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

As promised this episode is brought to you by the eligibility team, who I caught up with at Europe’s first event of the year in Portugal.

We also hear a short clip from Manon Eggermont the EDGA Director of Tournaments, in this weeks tough love and second chances podcast.

So let’s get to Episode 55 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

There is a change to Episode 54 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast. Originally planned as an Eligibility team podcast, after an unprecedented number of enquiries around the news of the G4D Tour, we decided to give some more detail on the newly announced Tour, in which EDGA has collaborated with the DP World Tour and European Tour group to make a reality.

As always, we have a short excerpt from the latest Tough Love and Second Chances Podcast, which features Ian Jones from England.

So let's get to episode 54 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.