Sandy Jones: Golf visionary

Sandy Jones: Golf visionary

Professional Golfers Association chief executive Sandy Jones told me this week that a round of golf he played with a US club pro in Texas convinced him golf has a key role to play in rehabilitating disabled golfers and, in particular, soldiers returning without limbs from the conflicts in the Middle East.

“The pro told me he had agreed to give a lesson to a war warrior who had only one leg. He’d never given a lesson to such a pupil before and asked me what he should do,” recalled Jones, a quietly-spoken Glaswegian now his 32nd year on the PGA staff.

“To be honest I didn’t really know either, but I said I’d find out and would ask the question when I got back.”

One of the results of the encounter is the combination of a PGA ‘Buddy Programme’ and the announcement last week of funding for coaching the blind and disabled.

The PGA Buddy Programme is helping the UK’s own war veterans who have lost limbs and are being rehabilitated at the Defence Medical Rehabilitation Centre at Headley Court near Leatherhead where injured combat troops are treated.

“There they are being encouraged to take up golf - even if they’ve never played before - and to integrate into their local clubs with the support of the PGA pro,” says Jones. 

“The launch of our new initiative with [Japanese philanthropist] Dr Haruhisa Handa will offer 1,000 lessons to the blind and disabled.”

“I haven’t met Dr Handa but it’s as if we were destined to meet somewhere in life because our philosophies are very much the same.”

Jones also revealed that he is playing a role on behalf of the PGA in the campaign to introduce golf as a discipline in the 2020 Paralympics.

He added: “It’s a very complicated process. It took us a long time to agree in Europe that the Olympics was important to golf and the Americans were a challenge for us to get them to agree, too.

“But once everyone came together we all put money into the bid. With the Olympics you can only focus your resources to take one step at a time but now we have one voice and there is a natural platform [for the Paralympics].”

He said although the Paralympics are considered separate to the Olympics, he was confident that with golf coming together in the push, golf would be included in the 2020 Paralympics.

Next week Jones gives a keynote speech at the PGA of America Merchandise Show in Orlando, Florida, about the role PGA pros in the UK are playing in providing lessons for the blind and disabled, including the war veterans that both nations share.

“We have also used the Ryder Cup Trust fund money to help various European countries to develop disabled programmes and we now have a number of our members trained to work in that area, which demands an entirely different skill set compare to working with you and I,” he says.

I’ve known Sandy Jones for more than 20 years and we share the traditional values of golf’s integrity and of players taking their caps off to shake hands. And it’s clear to see that even in the twilight of his career he’s working hard to ensure the game transcends sport.

“It’s a nice fit in the jigsaw, to use golf to improve people’s lives and whatever challenges they face. Golf is ageless, too, while retaining its life skills,” says Jones.

“I was so delighted when I learned that it wasn’t just a PGA tournament sponsor we were finding [in Dr Handa’s ISPS] it was someone who was going to help us achieve the ambitions I’ve always had in changing people’s lives.”

“It’s not just about how much money can we get and how much money can the guys win? We’ve got to use the game to improve the quality of life,” adds Jones, who has identified the 2014 Ryder Cup at Gleneagles as the time for him to step aside for someone else to take up the baton of progress.

Hopefully by then his efforts as a visionary and top administrator will have also been recognised in circles that have often honoured merely players.

After all her Majesty’s image overlooks the PGA board room as its patron.   

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