125 – Alessandra Donati

Alessandra Donati (pictured, centre) stops to say hello after her round in the EDGA Tour event at Vila Sol in November. Asked about her golf, she is content to give a wiggle of the hand, which in international golf sign language means ‘some good, some bad’; a simple gesture that perhaps sums up all of life.

Rather than her own game, Alessandra, or Ale (pronounced “Aleee”) is keen instead to talk about helping more people with a disability to try golf; to enjoy the nature, the friendship and the great feeling that golf can offer us all. For these reasons, she has in recent times volunteered to be one of 12 EDGA Advocates who promote the game to new players in their international region, a role she clearly loves and takes seriously.

It was more than two years ago when we first met Alessandra Donati in EDGA’s ‘tough love & second chances’ profiles. This friendly and popular golfer from Faenza (towards the north of Italy) is intelligent and shrewd with a ready sense of humour. As well as her advocacy role with EDGA, after working hard for a bank for 30 years, reaching the position of senior credit analyst, Ale retired last September. At last she can enjoy some great time off, relaxing, practising and playing more golf, including some travel adventures also.

Ale’s decade-long interest in golf has helped her deal much better with her condition Charcot-Marie-Tooth (CMT), a progressive neuropathy disease. Every year life can become more challenging but at this time her passion for golf only increases, the sport helping her physically and mentally, keeping her active and positive after the more difficult times.

Alessandra wrote to us recently: “The doctors diagnosed me with a rare disease, for which there is no cure. But I know they were wrong: I found the cure and it’s called Golf.”

Ale says: “Now I train and practise in golf more than in earlier days, but my sentiment is more for friendship than for competition. I try to play good golf but it’s not important if I play bad. It’s important to meet with friends, see new places and have a new adventure. And this is very good for me and my wellness.”

CMT made her give up swimming at the age of 30 as Ale started to feel self-conscious; socialising became difficult for her; she felt people looked at her like a stranger in those days. Ale is more confident today – partly thanks to golf – and now back in the swimming pool three times a week. In her EDGA role, Ale wants to help other young women to find their confidence too.

Ale says: “I think it can be much more difficult for women to be disabled; we are much more tied to perceptions and beauty standards in society, more so than men. Women and girls with a disability must take courage and leave the house: nothing is more beautiful than going out to play sports, and especially golf.”

Introduced to golf by her friend Renata, Alessandra is a member at Royal Park I Roveri, near Turin. The club stages major Italian tournaments, and at first Ale couldn’t imagine being a golfer there.

“Never! Royal Park is one of the most important golf clubs in Italy and the first time I went there and played in the Italian Open, for me it was like entering a church! [Ale laughs]. And now it’s like my home. Everyone says Ciao, hello, how are you? It’s fantastic.”

2022 was a good golfing season for Ale after the Covid years and she enjoyed a handful of EDGA tournaments including the EDGA Algarve Open in November, her favourite event. (She thanks her coach Giovanni for her recent good putting!). For 2023, she is planning to play in Scotland, France and Portugal, while friends want her to tee it up in Madrid.

“I will try to play in Madrid because I have a lot of friends there and every year they call me and they say come on, come on, play here in Madrid. We are waiting for you! [Ale laughs again], so I hope to get there too.”

In her role as an EDGA Advocate, Ale promotes the game in her own country by writing the EDGA Insider column for the golf news site Notizie Golf, and shares EDGA profiles and tournament news with readers, including the G4D Tour.

Her promotional role has also linked well with her golf. Ale was invited to play in the pro-ams for the Italian Challenge Open, held at Castelconturbia Golf Club, in Piedmont in 2020, and in last summer’s Ladies European Tour (LET) Italian Ladies Open at Golf Margara in the same region. Ale was delighted to support EDGA team members Luisa Ceola and Paolo Fancelli at Golf Margara, and Roberto Molina, Gregorio Guglielminetti and the then 19-year-old Andrea Plachesi in the men’s event.

By a coincidence, also booked into her B&B in Montferrat for the LET tournament was Ellinor Südow, a Swedish golfer (pictured below) who was making her debut on the LET. The two became firm friends by the end of the tournament.

Ale wants to help attract more girls and women to the game. She was delighted at the EDGA Algarve Open to be sharing the practice ground with a strong group of female players. Ale was also full of praise for EDGA’s Director of Development Aimi Bullock for starting a special Facebook page for women golfers, which can be a fantastic support and morale boost for the players.

“It’s very beautiful and important for me to be an EDGA Advocate because I feel I work not only for me but work for a group… For this, I am not Ale Donati the person, I have a mission. I love the shirt with the EDGA logo, they can see this and they can ask me something. It’s like a uniform I think, in a good way. Not like a military uniform but a beautiful uniform.”

In her interview more than two years ago Ale, said, “Life is beautiful, and golf is like a beautiful flower.” Today she say things have changed. “It is too little to say one flower now. It is a cultivation of flowers, not only a single flower like two or three years ago. Now there are many beautiful flowers. I feel myself being richer, and every time I play an EDGA event I feel more rich.”

If you would like to read, listen or view more of Alessandra’s story you can enjoy her original interview with EDGA here. Check out our Profiles section for many articles on a diverse range of people who are ‘golfers first’.