The G4D Open Returns to Woburn This Week

The G4D Open makes a welcome return to Woburn Golf Club this week as the most skilled golfers with disabilities compete in a fabulous event that has been established in partnership between The R&A and the DP World Tour and supported by EDGA (formally the European Disabled Golf Association).

It features nine sport classes across multiple impairment groups, with 80 men and women players of both amateur and professional status competing over Woburn’s renowned Duchess Course. With an age range from 15 to 68, players from 19 countries across the globe are represented, including from the USA, Australia, Canada, Japan and South Africa.

Contested over three days from Wednesday to Friday and across 54 holes of gross stroke play, there will be an overall winner, along with an opposite sex winner and a gross prize in each of the sport classes which cover various categories in Standing, Intellectual, Visual and Sitting.

A year on from his historic win in the inaugural Championship, Brendan Lawlor takes his place in a world class field. Lawlor, 27, edged out Kipp Popert to win by two shots last May and arrives ranked second on the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD). 

Lawlor, who has a rare condition called Ellis-van Creveld syndrome, characterised by a shorter stature and shorter limbs, and Popert are among 14 of the world’s top 20 players competing at Woburn, including all of the top five.

England's Popert - a nine-time winner on the G4D Tour who was born with a form of Cerebral Palsy called Spastic Diplegia - is the world number one.

Daphne van Houten is the leading female golfer, with the Dutch player ranked 25th in the world.

Australia’s Wayne Perske - who played in The Open in 2006 before battling severe back problems - makes his debut, having won the inaugural Scottish Open for Golfers with a Disability on Friday.

The English pair of Martine and Heather Gilks will make history as the first mother and daughter duo to play in The G4D Open.

Spectators are welcome to attend at Woburn for The G4D Open, with attendance and car parking free of charge.

Woburn continues its rich history of hosting amateur and professional championships with Final Qualifying for The Open from 2014 to 2017 and most recently the AIG Women's Open in 2019, both played on the Marquess Course.

The establishment of The G4D Open follows on from the inclusion of the Modified Rules of Golf for Players with Disabilities in the Rules of Golf and The R&A and USGA’s on going administration of the WR4GD.