Sport Classes

‘SPORT CLASSES’ TO ENSURE FAIR COMPETITION FOR ALL

The G4D Open at Woburn (15 – 17 May) will once again use ‘Sport Classes’ at the second edition of what for many is fast becoming a must-play championship. The inaugural event was a leader in the use of Sport Classes, which had been developed to move the game of golf closer to the requirements of the International Paralympic Committee.

All of the 80 qualifying players (via the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability) have a designated Sport Class, and will not only compete in the overall championship but also in their respective classes. At the end of this Championship there will be nine individual, world-leading Sport Class champions alongside the overall leading male and female winners.

The G4D Open therefore ensures that every G4D (golf for the disabled) player can compete in their category for this major international title which will only grow in stature.

Two of these champion golfers will be seated players (Sport Classes Sitting 1 and Sitting 2) who typically, but not always, use a powered chair such as a ‘Paragolfer’ to lift them up into the correct position to swing the club. Two of the winners will have intellectual impairments, such as autism for example (Intellectual 1 & Intellectual 2); a trio will be from three different ‘Standing’ classes, while classes Visual 1 and Visual 2 will be contested by golfers with a visual impairment.

And because of the Sport Classes, they can justly say they are the best of the best, certainly for this week in golf.

World Leading Research

EDGA, the acknowledged expert body in G4D, supports The G4D Open which is staged in partnership between The R&A and the DP World Tour. The Sport Classes were created by EDGA after research and collaboration with leading sport, medical and rehabilitation experts from around the world.

Eligibility and Training Lead for EDGA, Mark Smith said: “It comes down to fairness for players, which is essential in any successful sporting format. The nine classes were created to give all golfers with a disability the opportunity to play in events in which they can compete on a level playing field.

“We wanted to ensure these players have regular access to all the benefits of true competition, something which many non-disabled players take for granted, and that their position in the ‘competitive pathway’ is protected.

Since 2021, EDGA has consulted with Giles Long MBE, a Paralympian gold medalist and inventor of LEXI, to develop illustrative figure icons that can be used by tournament organisers and media to denote players’ eligible impairments ‘at-a-glance’. These gender-neutral figures use traffic-light colours to represent areas where coordination, movement, or vision are impaired.

Green indicates areas that have full function; yellow indicates minor loss of function; orange shows where function is moderately affected; red indicates those areas which have little or no function available for playing golf.

Spectators at events featuring the nine Sport Classes can also follow the field to learn more about each player: how a golfer with a visual impairment sets themselves to play for example, or how a golfer hits with one arm, or swings with an above-knee amputation, or plays from a powered chair.