Golf Central

It's not often that something well and truly inspires us to hit the fairways here at IGWT, but when we learned about the likes of Jack Newton and the British Amputee Golf Association, it was almost impossible not to dust off the clubs and book a tee time.

Jack Newton is an Australian golfer, best known for his playoff performance against Tom Watson in the 1975 Open at Carnoustie. Eight years after losing to Watson, however, Newton was seriously injured after walking into the spinning propeller of a Cessna plane. Remarkably, he still shoots scores in the mid-80s despite losing his right arm.

Equally impressive is the tale of the British Amputee Golf Association, who convene at Bryn Meadows GC, South Wales, this weekend for the most prestigious tournament of the year. 50 golfers from across the world will play in the event, which was first hosted at Bryn Meadows in 1989 and is played at a different course every year. The tournament and association were both founded by golf enthusiast Brian Mayo, who lost both his legs after licking a golf ball contaminated by weed killer.

Mayo sadly passed away in 1999, and his wife, Fay, said, 'I would think he's looking down now with some of his golfing heroes and he would be pretty chuffed with the way it's turned out.' Never a truer word said.