I lost a leg... but my game has reached a new level!
Scottish golfer McLay is making hay out of a new lease of life after the agony of amputation
WHEN Gordon McLay makes the trip to Bedfordshire next week to compete in the second G4D Open at Woburn, it will be the latest stage in his remarkable personal journey.
A self-taught, low-handicap player in his younger days, the world of the man from Prestonpans was turned upside down when a car ploughed into his motorbike in Edinburgh in 2007, snapping both his ankles.
Despite recovering to the extent that he still played the game and worked as a caddie on the over-50s circuit, McLay endured constant pain from which there was no relief.
‘I’d had fusion surgery on my ankle, but over time it was getting very, very sore and I was coming off courses in agony,’ said the Royal Musselburgh member.
‘I then twisted it at an event at London Golf Club, and actually broke a bone in it, and that finished me. I developed arthritis after that. I couldn’t play golf and I was in a pretty dark place.’
A few years ago, he arrived at the point where he felt that his quality of life had deteriorated to such a point that something drastic simply had to be done.
‘I pleaded with the surgeon to give me an amputation,’ he explained. ‘It took a couple of years of persuasion, but they eventually agreed to it.’
That life-changing operation on his right leg took place in September 2022. In January 2023, he won on his debut appearance in an EDGA (formerly the European Disabled Golf Association) event in Portugal.
That success suggested that the dark clouds had quickly lifted but the reality of the situation was much different.
‘Not long after that win, I began struggling a lot with anxiety,’ he explained. ‘There were a few tournaments that I managed just five or six holes because of this anxiety. I couldn’t see the ball for tears.
‘I asked if my wife could sit with me in the golf buggy and be with me as something of a comfort caddie. That really helped.
‘But all those issues stemmed from what had happened. I was riding the wave, so to speak, after my operation and went on to win that first event. Two or three months later, though, the reality of what I had been through really kicked in.
‘It all became a bit of a struggle for other reasons. I’d developed a neuroma (growth of nerve tissue) on my stump and had to get that removed. Then I had a spur of bone on the bottom of my leg and that had to be removed too. I’m on track now and all is good.’ Golf has always been a game that demands a considerable degree of mental fortitude. For McLay and all the other golfers with a disability, it is very much a case of putting mind over matter. ‘When I was really struggling, I did a lot of sports psychology,’ said McLay, who remains grateful to the golfing support and assistance he has had from the Royal Musselburgh PGA professional, Calum Smith. ‘I can play a lot of golf in my head,’ he added. ‘I don’t practise a lot, but I work a lot on the visualisation side of it. You need mental strength in golf, more so when you have a disability. You must believe it to achieve it.’