My journey to the WDGC

So how do I begin to tell my journey of being part of the Deaf Golf community. I’m deaf I suppose, that’s a starter. I’m Deaf, but I’m lucky to have technology to allow me to hear. I became deaf when I was 30 after suffering from a head injury during a car accident. This means I can still speak, as for the earlier parts of my life, I didn’t have my disability.

It was around 7 years ago, that I heard through Nevil about the English deaf golf team and I wanted to get involved. Since then I’ve played in 3 World championships in Japan, America and Denmark. All equally brilliant, however also equally nerve racking. I could say the nerves have lessened over time, but the pressure for playing for your country never seems to ease off.

This time, I felt different. The pressure was added as I was selected to be the Captain of the Seniors team. It was a great honour to Captain England, however the realisation that all I could do was my best had finally set in. My personal aim was to finish in the top 10 in the Seniors, but I also wanted to support and encourage my team, especially for the ones who were partaking in their first world championships. I had been there and having someone to help you through the bad rounds was what got you through the next round the following day. I’d like to say I did that and maybe being a leader was what pushed me to play some of my best golf this time round.

I felt prepared and I’d had plenty of practice (well as much as much as my lifestyle could lend me). My golf was on form, however we all know that golf is not just about your own play. The course, weather, added pressure of a competition can affect your mind-set and can have a huge influence on the results you achieve. Not to mention the crack of dawn alarms and the physical impact five consecutive rounds of competitive golf has on your body- I now realise what Tour Pro’s go through apart from the scoring (and let’s face it my body isn’t getting any younger). No further comments about my age thank you everyone! I was as ready as I could be and excited to lead the England team.

This year, the WDGC was in Dublin, Ireland. They had chosen the Carton House Golf Club to host the championships and the club was outstanding in many ways. Open fairways, tight fairways, trees, rivers, lakes and plenty of bunkers. Oh yes, I stood in a fair few of those. However, I didn’t let them crucify my game this time round! As many of you know there was live scoring. Let’s just say this didn’t always work in my favour and after receiving several concerned texts after my very first hole (10) I knew I had to pick up my game. Not the best start but I knew it could only get better. Or so I hoped! However, the 9 on a par 3 two days later also did not help my scoring.