The G4D Open for the world’s best disabled golfers – a photo essay

Now he can look back at it and laugh, boasting on this occasion he beats Woods. “He’s had one fusion, I’ve had four and a half!” He recalls being told by his surgeon after one surgery: “Forget about golf. It’s just not going to be something you will need to worry about.” But his old competitive spirit kicked in with his rehab and gradually, over time, he has managed to slowly rebuild his swing, taking up coaching roles and building back his life in golf.

Being an ex-touring pro, he faced a dilemma over whether he should participate in events like these. “Not only can I, I should. I’ve now taken on a role to promote the sport because I’ve seen what it does for people. It did it for me. I’ve gone from the depths of pain depression to playing in another Open championship. Golf has saved me. The first time round I was too busy trying to earn a living – I didn’t stop and smell the roses and this time I get to.”

Growing up in Santander in Spain meant there was only going to be one sporting hero for Juan Postigo Arce: Seve Ballesteros. It was just half an hour to Pedrena, Seve’s home course, and that is where Postigo Arce took up golf at the age of 12.

He was born without his lower right leg and knee and used to play the sport with a prosthetic until twelve years ago a botched operation on his stump meant that the nerve pain became so intense he could not use one any more. So he carried on with the game he loved on one leg. But he claims that he had a greater sense of balance from a very young age owing to his missing right leg and knee, so swinging like he does and keeping upright was not a problem.

Arce became fully professional two years ago, managed by Javier Ballesteros, Seve’s son. He plays all round the world, in roughly 15 to 20 tournaments a year, and has become one of the most recognisable faces in the world of disabled golf.

If you get the chance to see the amazing sight of Arce swinging a driver on one leg and crushing the ball 300 yards down the fairway, do. But don’t hang around; he does not know how long he can continue pushing himself through the pain barrier like so many of the other competitors.

“I’m now 28. Because of my conditions, I don’t have too many more years on tour,” he says. “It’s really hard to swing the golf club like I do, I won’t make the effort too much longer.” It is a shame for the wider sporting world that, if and when golf is included in the Paralympics, he will not be there.

So many of the golfers taking part in the G4D Open have remarkable stories. For Kris Aves, a 42-year-old from Barnet in north London, the fact he is playing golf at all is incredible. It was on one of his proudest days, 22 March 2017, that his life was turned upside down. Aves was a serving Metropolitan Police officer and had just picked up a commendation at a ceremony with the top brass at New Scotland Yard.

While walking over Westminster Bridge in his top ceremonial uniform, an SUV driven by the terrorist Khalid Masood deliberately mounted the pavement and knocked him down. “My next memory was nine days later when I got woken from an induced coma. My parents were there along with associated doctors and surgeons. That’s when they told me of my injuries and that, point blankly, I wouldn’t walk again.” He describes the rehab process as being like a newborn child, working out the basics of being able to live again.

The long road back meant an extended stay at Stoke Mandeville hospital. That is where he got introduced to sports he was capable of doing. He drew up a bucket list of the three things he wanted to do. “The first one was to be a proper dad to my kids. The second was to go and watch Spurs. The third was to play golf again.”

Before the terror attack Aves had been a very active golfer. Luckily, through one of his physios at Stoke Mandeville, he got introduced to the Golf Trust and they got him into a Paragolfer, a buggy specially adapted for golf that lifts him up to the right position to be able to swing the club properly.

The first time he got to hit a ball again was very emotional. “I broke down and cried. I thought it had been taken away but now it had been brough back into my life.” Soon after his local pub, the Railway Tavern, held a golf day and raised enough money to buy Aves his own Paragolfer.

Later this summer Aves is competing at the Cairns Cup, the disabled version of the Ryder Cup, held near Detroit. He has even been made a vice-captain. Looking back from where he is now, he finds it hard to believe. “Early doors after the injury, they were the dog days. You just think everything’s been taken away from you.” But playing golf again has given him a new sense of purpose. He’s already done a parachute jump and is eyeing up a shark dive. As for the possibility of the Paralympics further down the line? “If it’s put out there, I will work my hardest to give it a go.”

The men’s G4D Open champion at Woburn last week was Kipp Popert, the No 1 ranked golfer with a disability in the world. The 25-year-old from Kent edged out Lawlor by one shot. Popert was born with a form of cerebral palsy called spastic diplegia which impairs muscular movement and has led to countless surgeries and procedures on his legs and feet. In 2022 he became the first disabled golfer to qualify for the British Amateur Championship. Later this year he intends to turn fully professional and will attend the European Tour schools. This latest victory was his 10th on the G4D tour.