By Martyn Herman
LONDON (Reuters) – When Metropolitan Police officer Kris Aves came out of an induced coma eight days after being mown down by a speeding driver on Westminster Bridge in an attack that left five dead in 2017 he faced up to the reality of never walking again.
Any idea of continuing his golfing hobby would have seemed impossible then, but six years later Aves teed it up in the R&A’s inaugural G4D Open at Woburn, near London, on Wednesday.
The event, run in partnership with the DP World Tour, features around 80 of the world’s best golfers with disabilities, competing in nine categories over 54 holes.
Aves, who was paralysed from the waist down after being struck by the SUV driven by Islamist Khalid Masood, competes in the seated category thanks to a mobility device called a ParaGolfer that lifts him into an upright position.
The 41-year-old still faces daily battles with severe spasms and nerve pains and describes the difficulty of golf shots without being able to turn his legs or hips.
But his determination to return to the sport he loves has made a dream come true by playing the G4D Open.
“I used to play able-bodied golf for the Societies with the Met Police, but then I was injured in 2017 in the Westminster Bridge terrorist attack, and I didn’t think I would ever play golf again,” Aves said on the eve of the event.
A fundraising campaign in his local pub in Barnet allowed Aves to buy a 17,000 pounds ParaGolfer device.
“Thanks to ParaGolfer I was able to take my first shot as a disabled golfer, and it brought tears to my eyes,” he said.
“I used to travel around to other golf clubs with the ParaGolfer. Then, six months to a year ago, I’m thinking that I’m going to do something, and never did.
“So when this event came around, I said, that’s it, I’m going to enter, and here I am.”
World number one disability golfer Kipp Popert, born with a form of cerebral palsy, is among the favourites.
“Having 80 players with disability playing in our first major or our first Open Championship is pretty cool,” England’s Popert said. “It would be a brilliant honour (to win).”
Popert was leading on two-under-par after 15 holes on Wednesday, two ahead of Spain’s world number three disability golfer Juan Postigo who was born without a lower right leg and knee and who ditched using a prosthetic limb.
(Reporting by Martyn Herman, editing by Ed Osmond)
