One legged golfer leads championship
I’m from northern Spain where Seve (Ballesteros) came from. He was my mentor and my hero and we all know what an attacking player he was.
“I DON’T like them prosthetics.” That was the reaction from Spain’s big-hitting, go-for-broke 21-year-old Juan Postigo after he shot a remarkable three-underpar 69,balancing on his only leg (he was born without a right one), to take the first round lead in the South African Disabled Open at King David Mowbray GC in Cape Town Monday.
The vast majority of leg amputees competing at this level use sophisticated prosthetics which allow them to balance, get more feel and establish a more stable, power base. Not Postigo, who shot five birdies in his round which gives him a oneshot lead over defending champion Chad Pfeifer from the United States.
“I’m from northern Spain where Seve (Ballesteros) came from. He was my mentor and my hero and we all know what an attacking player he was.
“Like him, I also want to attack,” said the bronzed, smiling young Spaniard who birdied all four of Mowbray’s par-5s in his round, getting up in two shots at two of them and chipping and putting at the other two to make his fours.
To shoot a 69 around a golf course is a special feat. To do it balancing on one leg is absolutely remarkable. And to able to regularly hit 300-yard drives is, quite frankly, astonishing.
Meanwhile Pfeifer, whose left leg was blown off when the vehicle he was driving set off a landmine in Iraq while he was on military duty there, does use a prosthetic and he shot 70 yesterday, in spite of a missed two-footer which cost him a bogey five at the 18th.
Last year he won the World Disabled Open in Portland, Oregon, and he too is a wonderful talent. “Actually, although I had a pretty decent score I felt I was scrambling all day because the driver wasn’t 100 percent. Still, I putted well, making a couple of long putts for birdie – one of about 25 feet.
“At the short holes (the par-3s) I had a good look at birdie each time, made two twos and the other putts just lipped out.
“All in all, not a bad day considering I wasn’t at my best,” added Pfeifer, who posted a five-under-par 67 in Sunday’s practice round.
Fellow American, 47-year-old Kenny Bontz, with his Mohawk hairstyle, was home in 74 to be lying third but it was a mixed day for him – six birdies, eight bogeys, just four pars ... and only one leg.
“Not my normal round,” he said. “I’m usually super steady, and six birdies should result in an under par return. I finished the day with three straight bogeys and that’s definitely not me.”
Like Pfeifer, Bontz plays off scratch and he is eyeing to become the first amputee to qualify for the Champions Tour in three years’ time when he turns 50.
Canada’s Josh Williams, SA Disabled Open champion in 2014, is next best on the leaderboard on 75 with Uitenhage’s 53-year-old Christo de Jager the leading South African on 77. De Jager is playing in his tenth SA Open and the youngsters look up to him, and fondly call him “Oupa”.
Running concurrently with the Canon SA Disabled Open is the World Cup, with 12 teams competing and the US has jumped into an early lead.