The EDGA GOLFERS FIRST PODCAST Episode 61

EDGA GOLFERS FIRST PODCAST

Welcome to this week’s episode of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast. This week’s episode comes from Thonock Park in Gainsborough, the site of the inaugural EDGA PING Open, an RSM Gross Series event. We start with a short recap of the event at Thonock before looking back at the 2022 EGA European Team Championship for golfers with a disability and a sneak preview of this week’s EDGA Profile which features Hayato Yoshida from Japan. So let’s get to episode 61 of the EDGA Golfers First Podcast.

The Karsten Lakes Golf Course at Thonock Park in Gainsborough was the first EDGA PING Open venue. Thonock, is the home of the European Headquarters of the leading equipment manufacturer PING proved to be a stiff test for the players who battled it out in the stableford, Net and gross divisions. The Gross series, supported by RSM with prize money for the leading two players, was close after the first round, with three players within three shots and the leader at level par. Finally, Bradley Smith took home the lion’s share of the prize money as the winner with scores of 74 and 73 for a tree over par total. Second place in a three-way card playoff went to Oliver Hirst-Greenham, beating Paul Ellison from Scotland, who took home a bonus prize from Ping and Cedric Lescut from Belgium.

The EGA European Team Championship for golfers with a disability included the teams from 13 countries who took to the course in Koksijde - Belgium. The Nations Cup is traditionally played at the same venue over the same course, and this event was contested by a further eight teams. Although the event sits on the European Golf Associations’ calendar, EDGA were fully involved in the delivery of the event, together with EGA, The Royal Belgium Federation and the club of Koksijde.

The Royal Belgium Federation team, under the direction of Johan Verbiest, did a first-class job, and he garnered the support of the golf club and their fifty-plus volunteers who went the extra mile to look after the players, officials, and guests.

Ireland was making their debut in the event and made the perfect start as Conner Stone, Adian Gresham, Alan Gaynor, and world number one in the gross ranking Brendan Lawlor took a stunning victory from a distant second place team with a score of 3 under par over the five counting rounds.

The Nations Cup was won by the host country Belgium who were also making their debut with a team that was gender-balanced with Peggy and Liliane, an essential part of the four-player team, which also included Senne and Jules. The popular winners at the Koksijde course had a week to remember, and one that shows the number of Federations getting behind the event continues to grow. Perhaps the next edition in two years will also be won by debutants as more teams start to enter the most prestigious team event played in G4D.

Hayato Yoshida’s thoughts on golf can be readily applied to most of life. He took up golf only at the age of 30, after his early years had taken twists and turns. But he is a golfer today (a PGA Professional in fact) and a philosophical one at that. He will tell you that “golf is life” and that “golf is a dialogue with yourself.

Hayato survived a horrific injury as a young man, an accident that could have damaged his life irreparably. Indeed, it wrecked his boyhood dream of playing professional baseball. However, despite the setback, Yoshida, from Kawasaki in the Greater Tokyo area of Japan, has managed to remain highly positive but also very much focused on what he can achieve in life.

You can find Hayato’s story in the Tough Love and Second Chances Podcast, which is available on most leading podcast platforms and our youtube channel, which can be found by typing edgagolf.tv into your browser.