“When I was a little boy the doctors told my family that I wouldn’t be able to walk, run, bike or swim, and would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair.”
Fast forward 20 years and Guy Harrison, 23, from New Zealand, was preparing to play on the G4D Tour in Spain at the time of writing; playing with some confidence after working hard on his game and competing to a high standard in recent times – off his 8.3 golf handicap – propelling himself up the Net World Ranking for Golfers with Disability.
After a difficult start in life, the love of his family kept him going, while swimming, golf and running have been the sports that helped to boost Guy’s physical development, strength, and balance as he grew up.
Guy says today: “Golf is my true love – getting out on the course with mates, seeing new places. It was a massive benefit to start golf at a young age so I can enjoy progress in the game.”
He adds: “At three years-old everything was going great until I had a massive seizure, and I died. The doctors were able to bring me back but the time I was dead it left me with brain damage and cerebral palsy.
“Nobody knows how and why this all happened to me, but with the support of my parents we proved the doctors wrong and kept me out of the wheelchair using golf a lot to help me. I started my golf at five years-old going out a couple of times a week with my Dad to a local nine-hole public golf course and it just went from there.”
Guy is from Napier on the eastern coast of New Zealand’s North Island, now playing his golf at Napier Golf Club. From an early age he started to experience steady improvement in his game, representing his school team and playing in national junior events, always backed by parents Keith and Vickie who are both local high school teachers. He enjoys all his sport with his family including his younger sister Nina, while ticking off golf courses, many with his Dad, having now played 218 courses in New Zealand so far.
“Growing up, golf helped me a lot: being ‘different’ from my peers was hard, but I was lucky enough to make some great friends and memories along the way. Through golf, I felt ‘normal’ and was treated no differently than the other golfers, which was great.
“As many families out there know it is not easy having a disability, or supporting someone who has one. There are many barriers which surface every day, especially coming through school, but golf has been important for me to help with my mental outlook.”
Guy discovered G4D (golf for the disabled), and played in his first G4D event in 2019, after he saw a promotional poster at a local golf club. Since then he has played 15 G4D events around New Zealand run by Golf New Zealand and Disability Golf NZ.
Describing his abiding love for the game, Guy says: “When you play well it is a hard feeling to explain: you kind of get into the zone and have that massive feeling of happiness which stays with you when you leave the course to continue on with the rest of your day.”
The positive power of sport to enhance people’s lives is clearly a key learning for Guy, who in 2023 completed his degree in Sport & Exercise Science at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Napier.
Guy thanks all his golf mates, and supporters and coaches such as Dave Lawrence, head of juniors at nearby Hawkes Bay Golf Club, who Guy has helped to run training sessions with the youngsters, and his sponsor in recent years Rachael Knight, for helping him to be the golfer he is and ready for the G4D Tour opportunity in Spain.
“I am really looking forward to this, making new connections and just playing some golf in a new country. It is going to be a great few days I am sure,” Guy says.
“The coolest thing is that my caddie for the event is my Dad who is the person who helped me get into golf. Growing up he was the person I really wanted to beat and I have had the chance to go on many ‘roadies’ with him travelling around New Zealand playing golf. Who knows how I will play but it will be great to have him on the bag, and I just couldn’t ask for a better caddie.”
The G4D Tour Andalucía Masters was another step in Guy’s dream to play at the highest level possible and experience the world’s great courses. Importantly, golf is set to form a special part in his own future, to keep him focused; while he wants to use what he is learning to inspire other young people with cerebral palsy and other disabilities to build up their confidence through golf and look to reach their own potential.
He explains: “Growing up with cerebral palsy wasn’t easy and I battled in school with dyslexia: It was all a slow process. My disorder has a major effect with my movement being jerky and with a low level of balance. This is slowly getting worse but I’m trying to achieve everything I can at the moment.
“Golf is a game where you are never going to play perfectly but you strive to be the best you can be. Giving back to the youth and future generations, to help to take away their personal barriers, is massively important for me, and being involved in this sport has taught me many great attributes to improve my personal life and my mental outlook on life as a whole.”
For Guy, someone who has played so many courses in his home country, arriving to play the renowned Real Club de Golf Sotogrande in Spain, courtesy of the DP World Tour, should be a wonderful experience for him and his caddie, Dad Keith. Guy will be one of a field of 10 players from four continents who have qualified for the G4D Tour through their consistency in World Ranking Net events. Golfers with a range of impairments, including musculoskeletal, neurological, limb difference, intellectual disabilities and visual impairment will be teeing it up.
Everyone present will bring their own story about why golf can be such a great game to boost a person’s health and wellbeing. This young Kiwi from Napier is busy adding another layer to golf’s story which is all about, as Guy puts it so well, never playing perfectly but striving to be the best you can be.
Guy will also be adding another special golf course – number 219 – to his playing portfolio. And after proving the medical professionals entirely wrong when he was younger, to his progress today: completing a degree in sport and exercise science as he looks to the future, this is clearly a young man who not only plays the game to a high standard but can offer the game a great deal too. He is a Guy worth talking to, and though the game has helped him a lot so far, he is already giving back.
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