Daikin Madrid Adapted Golf Open
HUGO COSTA
Updated Thursday, November 2, 2023 – 21:27
Adapted golf athletes, some with very difficult stories of improvement, played between October 28 and 29 in the Daikin Madrid Open tournament in which the result was the least important.
Juan Postigo in the Daikin Madrid Open.EM championship
“That experience marked me. Since then, I have lived making the most of every moment and giving thanks for what I have, because at any moment it can end.” They were words of Jon Rahm when he remembered the punishment he received in 2011. Jon was an amateur and Federacin Espaola de Golf He wanted to punish the anger and bad gestures of the 16-year-old Spanish player by sending him to rake bunkers in an adapted golf tournament. His vision of sport and life changed forever.
That same feeling of being lucky is what any mortal who had spent last weekend in the Encn Golfa spectacular route on the outskirts of Alcal de Henares, which was built at the time weighing the Ryder Cup. About 90 heroes without capes, but with golf clubs, competed for three days within the framework of the Daikin Madrid Adapted Golf Open which celebrates its XVI edition, one of the most important initiatives developed each year by the Madrid Golf Federation.
Around the greens and fairways The Encn Dozens of dramas, stories of overcoming, laughter, tears, helplessness, but above all optimism have been intermingled. An ode to life through golf divided into five categories, where players without legs or arms, blind, paralyzed or even fighting against the cruel tremors of relentless Parkinson’s, they have enjoyed three days of golf.
The Madrid field should have been filled with stands, with the public crowding each one of these personal exploits, but the spotlights are elsewhere. Only the volunteers and staff of the Madrid federation as well as the autumn cold accompanied each of these stories.
McCormack
The North American Paul McCormackfinally sixth after leading the first 18 holes, worked as a police officer in the New York department until after the 9/11 attacks against the Twin Towers He was left blind due to being exposed to toxic elements during the rescue of the victims.
For its part, Alexander of Miguel, blind due to congenital glaucoma, recognizes the importance of this sport in his life: “It has become my tool to stay alive and discover the world.” The winner of British Open of the blind and other prestigious tournaments, he lost his sight before he was 30. “I’ve learned a lot from people who are in the same circumstances as me,” she reveals.
The Dominican Manuel de los Santos He was a professional baseball player and hours before signing a contract for the major leagues, specifically the Toronto Blue Jays, cruel fate left him without his left leg after a motorcycle accident. At Encn he finished seventh.
The drama is much more recent for Fernando Vega de Seoane: A little over a year ago a ski accident caused him a ‘complete spinal cord injury’. “I managed to get on a paragolfer“It has been a driving force for mental and physical recovery,” he says about a type of motorcycle to which he anchors his body and modulates its height in order to gain verticality and thus hit the ball.
Carlos Cofrades He has ended up lost in the mid-table positions, but he doesn’t really care, at almost 50 years old he lives with the parkinson and he is clear about what is really important: “From being in bed with depression to playing golf with your friends.” This is his true victory.
There are many victories in this weekend tournament, although the number corresponded to Juanele Postigo in tough competition with Cameroons Issa Nlareb Amang. The Cantabrian is a player on the DP World Tour adapted. He was born with a congenital malformation of his right leg. A disability that has not prevented him from succeeding in the world of golf and accumulating a new title this weekend with rounds of 76 and 73 strokes.
Perhaps the most surprising story of the tournament is that of the Cameroonians, second placed, who made their debut in this tournament. The player confessed that “his first connection with golf was picking up balls from the course so he could sell them and eat.” After becoming a caddy, Dumb became the most promising golfer in sub-Saharan Africawon the Senegal Open and became the first golfer in that area to qualify for the Alps Tour (third division of the European Tour).
His luck and career were cut short in a tournament in Egypt. A bacteria caused a gravsima meningitis. “I only remember my last swing in Egypt, on the 9th hole, which was very good,” the Cameroonian takes the drama out of his story, although he continues with the very harsh story: “I don’t remember anything about the rest, I was five of the en coma and I was dying, the only solution was to amputate.” They had to transfer her to Belgium to cut off both of her legs and eight fingers on her hand; she only has the thumb and little finger on her right hand. “I simply had to accept my circumstances, “The world doesn’t stop because you don’t have legs or fingers, I learned not to give up and enjoy life, which is very beautiful,” he says.
A week later he returned to the golf course and, as best he could, hit a ball. “I knew then that I was going to play again,” he recalls. The Cameroonian got help for prosthetics and devised a system by tying his hands to be able to hold the golf club. So much tenacity and sacrifice has paid off: Dumb It is handicap +2.8, the lowest of the entire competition this weekend. Additionally, in 2021 he achieved one of the most impressive milestones in golf: he returned to the Alps tour to compete again with the professionals and, without legs or fingers, he made the cut. A Bay Open with rounds of 70 and 71 strokes and finished in 51st place. Since then, he has not made another cut, but his dreams remain intact. “My dream is to play the DP World Tour, I know it’s complicated, but I fight for it every day,” he concludes.
2023-11-02 20:27:59
#golf #salvation #world #doesnt #stop #dont #legs #fingers
