The EDGA team is “delighted and proud” for Dr Roger Hawkes, whose impressive career was celebrated by the European Tour Group at Wentworth Club last week.
Dr Hawkes has in recent years supported EDGA, the acknowledged international authority on G4D (golf for the disabled): his work inspiring a great many people with a disability to thrive through golf. But this period has made up just one element of a remarkable career being honoured by his peers on Wentworth’s first tee prior to the BMW PGA Championship.
Here, an invited group of friends and colleagues from the sport celebrated Dr Hawkes’s role in transforming the health and fitness of DP World Tour players over a 25-year period; his world-leading research into injuries and treatments for golfers at all levels; while exemplifying the physical and mental benefits of golf to new audiences to grow the sport, including increasing opportunities in golf for people with a disability.
Wentworth was a fitting venue for the occasion as Dr Hawkes spent so much of his working time at the HQ of the European Tour Group, from his beginning as a tournament doctor in 1991 to being appointed (in 2003) as the Tour’s Chief Medical Officer (CMO), significantly developing its operational reach until he left the post in 2017.
Long-time Tour colleagues David Garland, the Director of Tour Operations, Rob Hillman, the Head of Physiotherapy, Roger’s successor as CMO Dr Andrew Murray, Dr Chris Neville, the CMO of The R&A, and members of the Therapy Team were all present at Wentworth to show their appreciation.
Dr Hawkes said later: “This was a great honour, in a lovely small ceremony including many colleagues who are also dear friends. I can remember at the very start our working late nights together as we thought through the best possible way to support all the health and fitness requirements of the players, by bringing together doctors and physiotherapists to form one dynamic operational team. It was then important to conduct and publish high quality research into injuries specific to golf to produce an ongoing evidence base, while also appreciating a key part in changing the mindset of players towards achieving better levels of fitness and injury-prevention. It was a happy coincidence that Tiger Woods arrived on the scene to support these values of how to play the game at the highest level!
“So much has changed in recent years. Today, many of my dedicated colleagues have worked together to grow the operation that now supports professional players across the world – and superbly run by my successor as CMO Dr Andrew Murray.”
Also honoured at Wentworth by the DP World Tour was wrist surgeon Doug Campbell, who Dr Hawkes recruited for key research and surgery on players in this specialised area, and who is retiring from his work with the Tour.
As a General Practitioner in England (Hawkes studied at the University of Birmingham), and later a specialist in Sport and Exercise Medicine (SEM), Hawkes was able to influence and grow services in the UK’s NHS. By the end of his career he had helped develop pilot work in using ‘golf on prescription’, which is now being undertaken at a number of sites in the UK.
This came about after he led the World Golf Foundation’s study ‘Golf and Health’, which effectively tested and proved the myriad of health benefits and some risks associated with the game.
In the early 2000’s, Dr Hawkes would create the anti-doping policies for both the European Tour Group and The R&A and he is still a member of the Medical Committee of the IGF, helping adapt his work to have golf accepted into the Olympic Games.
Chief Medical Officer for the European Tour Group, Dr Roger Hawkes joined the Board of EDGA, becoming Director of Eligibility.
Dr Hawkes said: “Following the excellent earlier work of Prof. Hans Arendzen and Jan Esser, I’m working today with great colleagues such as our Head of Training Mark Smith; our team creating a highly successful Eligibility Programme which creates the fair and consistent assessment of any person’s disability (physical, sensory or intellectual), which is crucial to get people playing meaningful and enjoyable competitions.”
More than 120 tournaments are run, badged or supported by EDGA. Meanwhile, medically assessed eligible players can enter regional, national and international G4D tournaments – from local events to the highest level of the G4D Tour (which is run by the DP World Tour) and The G4D Open (run by The R&A in partnership with the DP World Tour). The Eligibility team led by Dr Hawkes and Mark Smith have recently created nine ‘Sport Classes’ to include players across all impairment groups in meaningful competition, while further aligning G4D with the ideals of the Paralympic movement.
Dr Hawkes has recently supported Dr William Wynter Bee, the EDGA Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, to undertake a PhD and to lead comprehensive EDGA research projects: one looking into the performance characteristics of more than 150 players with a range of impairments, and a second into golf’s impact on the health and wellbeing of G4D players.
EDGA is the international organisation with expertise in G4D, providing advice, guidance and standards to leading golfing bodies, including the IGF, The R&A, and the DP World Tour, currently working with 50 National Golf Federations around the world.
EDGA President Tony Bennett said: “Roger is always modest about his contribution to the game but it is absolutely right that this is recorded, and this recognition is entirely deserved. Our EDGA team were delighted and proud to hear this news.
“We have all been highly fortunate to be able to draw on Roger’s expertise, experience and goodwill in recent times. A lot of his work may appear complex to the outsider but I think essentially it is all about helping players to enjoy the game and thrive in their lives. It’s been about offering better opportunities to play the game and reach your potential while helping us all to stay healthy in body and mind. His contribution to golf and golfers has been simply outstanding.”
See more details about EDGA at www.edgagolf.com