EDGA Dubai Finale - Player Profiles

The EDGA Dubai Finale is a new 36-hole tournament for Golfers with Disability that will take place alongside the DP World Tour Championship, Dubai, the season-ending Rolex Series event on the European Tour.

Played on Friday November 22 and Saturday November 23, the field is made up of six players from the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GB) and two wildcard invitations.

Here, we take a look at the field for the inaugural event in Dubai:

George Groves

George Groves was born with Erb’s Palsy, a condition of paralysis of the arm. In Groves’ case, it is his left arm of which a medical accident during birth left him with just 20% movement and strength. However, this has not stopped Groves enjoying the sport he loves nor has it stopped him wanting to continuously improve, despite being World Number One.

World Ranking: 1

Mike Browne

Training in Longmore, as part of his army training, Mike broke his leg and what he thought would be six weeks side-lined turned into 22 limb salvage operations, two years in a llazarov frame with 52 wires running through his leg and daily one-millimetre adjustments to stretch his shinbone.

This was due to a bad infection the former Royal Artillery Gunner picked up in hospital, which consumed all the muscles around the knee. It was in May 2013, Brown made the decision to amputate his leg.

World Ranking: 3

Brendan Lawlor

Brendan Lawlor has a rare condition called Ellis-can Cerveld syndrome, which is characterised by a shorter stature and shorter limbs. The aspiring Irish golfer won many competitions at junior level, but it is his career at adult level that really stands out, winning the EDGA Scottish Open.

This event was played alongside the European Tour’s Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open and, since his victory, Lawlor has been signed by Modest Golf – Niall Horan’s management company.

World Ranking: 4

Charles-Henri Quélin

Charles-Henri Quélin is ranked comfortably inside the top ten in the world and has a catalogue of wins across Europe. The Frenchman plays left-handed but putts right-handed to negate the effects of a fused right arm.

Quélin has represented both the full French National Team and the Golfers with Disability team.

World Ranking: 6

Chad Pfeifer

Chad Pfeifer credits golf with saving his life after he had his leg blown off in Iraq while serving for the U.S. Army’s 3rd Airborne Battalion. It was a fellow soldier, and double amputee, Christian Bagge who introduced Pfeifer to the game of golf and he has not looked back since.

Just four years after hitting a golf ball for the very first time, Pfeifer would be lifting his first trophy after winning the 2011 National Amputee Golf Championship.

World Ranking: 7

Chris Biggins

Since he was a child, Chris Biggans has battled cerebral palsy, a permanent movement disorder, however this has not stopped him thriving in the game of golf. Not only does Biggins sit inside the top 10 players in the world, but he is also a professional at the Country Club of Birmingham, USA.

Biggins’ talents do not end there either. The American is also a very talented skier and is tipped to be a potential Paralympics skier.

World Ranking: 9

Geoff Nicholas

Geoff Nicholas is one of the most dominant golfers in Amputee golf for over a decade and can even boast he has beaten Tiger Woods. That would be after the first round of the 1996 Australian Open, when Geoff was playing on the PGA of Australia. The Australian won the inaugural British Amputee Open in 1990 and then followed up with a win at the US Amputee Open. He would then go on to win both of these tournaments every year until 2002.

Nicholas was born with a form of Thalidomide which affected both legs from the knee down, before eventually deciding to amputate his right leg.

World Ranking: 10

Joakim Bjorkman

Diagnosed with achondroplasia, which means short stature, Joakim Bjorkman is a regular competitor at international level for the Swedish Handi-Golf team. Golf acted as a temporary relief from the stress of his condition growing up and his hard work on the practice ground was rewarded in 2005 when he was invited to represent Sweden at the European Championship in 2005.

World Ranking: 22