Chasing silverware a balancing act for Juan Postigo at The Lakes

Juan Postigo will tackle The Lakes course while playing among the best golfers in Australia ... all on one leg.

Spaniard Juan Postigo hits an iron in preparation for this week’s All Abilities Championship at The Lakes in Sydney. Picture: Brett Costello

Juan Postigo pulled out his driver. Replaced it with a three-wood. Tossed aside his prosthetic leg. Took three kangaroo hops. Bent over. Pushed his tee into the ground. Laughed about that being the toughest challenge. Stood on his good leg. Surveyed the scene from the 10th tee at The Lakes Golf Club. Stood over the ball that was positioned directly in line with his foot and unfurled a rhythmical swing.

The contact was powerful. The follow-through was impeccable. He split the fairway with an offering that drew nicely on the southerly breeze. It travelled about 210m. His longest drives are 250m and beyond. Off he went.

The prosthetic leg was doubling as one of two crutches that would haul him around the 6.2km course. He hit his 150m approach over the back of the green with a seven-iron. He chipped on. Took a couple of putts. Got back on his crutches and carried on. Hard work, old mate? Born with nothing but thin air below his right knee, the Spaniard grinned: “It is all I know!”

Remember the integration of disabled athletes to the Commonwealth Games? The raging success of it? Here comes another. The inaugural Australian All Abilities Championship will be held in conjunction with this week’s Australian Open. No one is being hidden. It’s no token gesture. In a world first, disabled golfers will play under the same tournament conditions, on the same course and at the same time as those involved in the main bout. The 12-man field will be placed alongside the main prime time groups who are jostling for the Stonehaven Cup on Saturday and Sunday.

Australia’s Anthony Quayle played the 10th hole at the Lakes with scratch-marker Postigo. He made quadruple bogey while hitting virtually everything through mid-wicket. He tipped his cap at the Spaniard and said: “Unbelievable.”

Golf has recently been rejected as a Paralympic sport but an event like this will push and showcase the cause for inclusion. The 12-man field will be headlined by France’s world No 1 Charles-Henri Quelin and Postigo, plus the Australian quartet of Shane Luke, Stephen Prior, Mike Rolls and Geoff Nicholas.

“First time in the world this is happening,” Postigo said. “To be part of it is special to me. Fantastic. To be playing on the same course and the same tees as these guys is going to be a real pleasure. It’s difficult to describe with words but the experience the players will have on the 18th hole when the crowd is cheering. There will be an ambience that we will feel here because of the golf culture. I really expect the fans here in Australia will have fun with us.”

Postigo was taught golf by his grandfather from the age of 10.

“I was born like this,” he said. “My grandad, who’s 86, started playing golf when he retired. I was the only one who wanted to go with him to the golf course. It doesn’t make any difference to me, to play golf with one leg. I don’t know anything else to do. I started playing with my prosthetic right leg. I had an operation seven years ago and then I had to restart playing golf. I feel more natural without my prosthetic. I really feel like a golf player and not a robot, as I did before.”

Postigo said the memory of a close childhood friend stabbed to death on a US golf course in September would drive him during the tournament.

Bearing a commemorative ribbon on his hat, Postigo dedicated his appearance to Celia Barquin, a 22-year-old college player who was killed while practising on a course near Iowa State University. A homeless man was later charged with her murder.

“I am here to play for her this week; the ribbon is for her and my golf bag is for her,” Postigo said.

Barquin won the European Ladies’ Amateur Championship in July and was a rising collegiate star at Iowa State.

“I was in Belgium (at the time of the murder) ... my cell phone was ringing,” Postigo said.

“My mother said, ‘Celia has been killed’. It was the worst morning of my life.”

Postigo and Barquin grew up playing junior golf together at the Golf Abra Del Pas course in Cantabria, northern Spain.

“I lost one of my best friends; my teammate since we were ­little,” he said. “It was a terrible loss; but we have to (remember) the good moments and I’ll definitely remember her smiley face. Golf Abra Del Pas is actually going to be renamed after Celia.”

The 22-year-old European champion said it was a battle learning to play on one foot rather than using a prosthetic leg.

“When I started playing with a prosthetic I was four handicap in 2013, 2014. When I started playing without it, I felt like I had no distance and consistency. I’d try to hit it harder but I’d pull it, push it, whatever.

“I started working on the body and not the swing. Now I am much fitter and stronger I can make the swing I want to make.”