Ensuring the continued growth of fair and accurate ‘eligibility’ of players will help many more people with a disability to enjoy competitive golf worldwide – EDGA medical experts explained to the recent international ‘Assessors Meeting’ at Pestana Vila Sol in Portugal.
EDGA Director of Eligibility Dr Roger Hawkes and his team welcomed delegates from five continents and 14 nations, including the USA, Australia, Japan and UK. Doctors, physiotherapists and other health professionals gathered to inform, share and discuss latest developments in eligibility matters and to facilitate EDGA’s aim of getting 500,000 new players with disability started in the game.
Reporting on G4D’s (golf for the disabled) continued growth, the EDGA Central Eligibility Team wished to highlight the importance to National Golf Federations of appointing National Eligibility Assessors to assess and register the growing number of people with a disability who wish to play at different levels of the competitive player pathway all over the world. They will also be able to better identify players eligible for team events, such as the upcoming EGA European Team Championship to be held in Germany in the summer of 2024.
More than 100 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 majority of EDGA-supported events have Gross, Net and Stableford divisions specifically to encourage players with a wide range of disabilities to play together, and through their performances can climb the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability and reach their full potential.
Dr Hawkes explained that EDGA’s Eligibility Programme creates the fair, accurate and consistent assessment of any person’s disability (physical, sensory or intellectual), which is crucial to get people playing official competitions.
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, with a membership made up of 39 National Golf Federations from around the world.
World leading expertise for EDGA
Dr Hawkes said: “When a national federation works with EDGA and appoints their own assessors, we can share our state-of-the-art education system, created through a fantastic partnership with world-leaders in the field, the Shirley Ryan AbilityLab in Chicago.
“By taking the responsibility to appoint trusted National Eligibility Assessors, more G4D players can be registered worldwide at all levels, including samplers, while welcoming the widest range of disabilities to play; and, crucially, ensuring more women and girls can reach their potential through greater opportunity to play the game.
“So many more new players can be welcomed into the sport, but we need the Eligibility infrastructure to keep pace with the demand. In the future, EDGA’s eligibility role will be to ensure consistency with the interpretation of the standards by the Eligibility Assessors within the national federations and to continue doing the research to support these agreed standards.”
EDGA Administrative Assessor Mark Smith informed the meeting that fair assessment is also needed among federations to better identify and select players for team events, including next year’s European Team Championship (run by the European Golf Association), which will include at least one female player in each national team of four players. Teams will be selected from ‘Sport classes’ determined by the way these players choose to play the game (including visually impaired, seated golfers and those with intellectual disabilities) and organised in Bands for the Team Championship. Sport classes are sport specific but are being aligned to the Paralympic movement. Further information for federations has been circulated and is available on the EGA website.
Players who do not reach the minimum level of impairment in the 10 IPC categories are still able to play but are not able to collect World Ranking points.
Detailed ongoing research into G4D
Another example of the international expertise available to EDGA came at the meeting when Dr, Professor Peter Allen, Professor of Optometry and Visual Science at Anglia Ruskin University, explained how a two-year study, funded by EDGA, will create a fairer, evidenced based eligibility standard for players with visual impairment (VI).
Dr William Wynter Bee, the EDGA Chief Medical and Scientific Officer, reported on EDGA research projects: one looking into the performance characteristics of more than 100 players with a range of impairments, and a second into golf’s impact on the health and wellbeing of G4D players. These will form part of his PhD being supervised by the University of Edinburgh. He also outlined other research projects with which EDGA is collaborating internationally to understand and improve golf participation for those with a disability, and the game’s specific health benefits. The meeting provided a great opportunity for researchers from around the globe to get together and discuss important issues and resulted in the formation a ‘global research forum’.
G4D golfers have recently been boosted by ‘Rule 25’, which highlights how the Modifications to The Rules of Golf by The R&A have now been included within the Rules of Golf, and so players will no longer have to ask for the rules to be applied. EDGA has used its database to create an algorithm which can confirm the Rule 25 benefit for players for the conditions covered.
Dr Roger Hawkes added: “Thanks to everyone who shared their time, thoughts and expertise for our meeting. We have created an agenda for the future and it will be so important to work with everyone around the world to achieve our aims to grow the game in the fairest way for more people with a disability.”
For more information, visit www.edgagolf.com.