Singapore: Laguna National Golf Resort Club will host the first G4D Tour (Golf for the Disabled Tour) event in Asia.
The G4D Tour @ Singapore Classic will take place on February 6-7, alongside the DP World Tour’s Singapore Classic at Laguna National, a Facility Member of the Asian Golf Industry Federation.
G4D Tour @ Singapore Classic is the third of eight stops announced for 2023 as part of the Tour’s expanded global schedule.
Singapore Classic Executive Championship Director Patrick Bowers said: “We are honoured to be the home of Asia’s first-ever G4D Tour event. This is a wonderful milestone to celebrate and we are looking forward to welcoming these talented golfers to Singapore.”
The likes of England’s Kipp Popert, a four-time winner in the inaugural 2022 season whose fine form has continued into this season, and veteran Australian Geoff Nicholas are among the athletes who will tee off at Laguna National. The 61-year-old Nicholas dominated amputee golf for over a decade in the 1990s and qualified for the Senior Open Championship in 2019.
Other golfers in action include Aiden Grenham of Ireland and England’s Oliver Hirst-Greenham, who will make their G4D Tour debut in Singapore.
Popert will also lead a clinic with youths from the Cerebral Palsy Alliance Singapore.
Launched in 2022 with an initial seven-event schedule, the G4D Tour sees the world’s leading golfers with a disability compete on the same course, the same week, as professionals on the DP World Tour.
The 2023 season will see additional uplifts to the G4D Tour, including the introduction of a season-long Order of Merit.
Each G4D Tour event is open to amateurs and professional players of all eligible impairments, men and women. For 2023, players will be able to qualify from both their ranking on the gross division of the World Ranking for Golfers with a Disability (WR4GD) and events on the European Disabled Golf Association (EDGA) Tour, ensuring an international pathway to reach the G4D Tour.
The European Tour Group pays the expenses of players as they travel around the world, to ensure that the Tour is open to all players regardless of their financial circumstances.
To be eligible, all players must have a World Ranking for Golfers with a Disability and an EDGA Player Pass.
Since the G4D Tour launched last year, applications for a World Ranking and Player Pass have reached record levels, illustrating the impact the G4D Tour is having on raising awareness and increasing participation.
The DP World Tour will continue to utilise its social media channels, and relationships with global broadcasters, to showcase the G4D Tour on a range of media platforms throughout the 2023 season.
The 2022 inaugural season, which had its finale at the DP World Tour Championship in Dubai, saw England’s Mike Browne, Italy’s Tommaso Perrino and Sweden’s Rasmus Lia win events alongside Popert. Players of 10 different nationalities competed.
Speaking about the enhanced 2023 schedule, Keith Pelley, Chief Executive of the European Tour Group, said: “The G4D Tour has been a tremendous success since it launched. We have seen unprecedented numbers of golfers with a disability enquire about playing on the Tour and getting a World Ranking, thanks to the ability for these inspirational players to play Tour level courses next to the best players on the DP World Tour.
“We have developed a very close relationship with EDGA and the European Tour Group will continue to support the association in its focus on developing capacity within the golf industry, through a variety of education and development activities.
“I firmly believe that golf has the potential to be the most inclusive sport in the world and the G4D Tour is a major step in realising this ambition.”
Tony Bennett, President of EDGA, added: “The G4D Tour is the visible manifestation of EDGA’s development of golf for the disabled – a process that started 22 years ago.
“Since our first collaboration with the European Tour Group and DP World Tour, there has been exponential growth at all levels. The G4D Tour has created greater awareness and resulted in a cascade effect with more tournaments at every level, more national federations building accessible activities, and of course, more grassroots programmes than ever before. The support that the European Tour Group and DP World Tour provide to EDGA helps make all of this possible.”