If you ask golfer Bailey Smaldon, he will tell you he has the best swing among his teammates and has the medals to back it up.<\/p>\n
The 22-year-old, who has an intellectual disability, placed first in the Special Olympics Golf Classic’s nine-hole division on the Gold Coast last month.<\/p>\n
“I’m pretty good,” Mr Smaldon said.<\/p>\n
His favourite part of the sport was to “hit [the] golf ball far”.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Bailey Smaldon won first place in the Special Olympics Golf Classic’s nine-hole division in October. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Mr Smaldon attends a weekly golf program at Golf Programs Australia Incorporated (GPAI), which is affiliated with the Special Olympics, on the Sunshine Coast.<\/p>\n
The Nambour-based not-for-profit association delivers specialty golf programs and provides training and employment opportunities for people with a disability at its charity golf pro-shop.<\/p>\n
‘More than a world-first golf tournament’<\/p>\n
It’s set to hold a “world-first” event in which people with an intellectual disability will organise and staff a professional golf tournament on December 4.<\/p>\n
GPAI’s founder and president, Darrell Dalton, said the charity pro-am event would be the first-time people with intellectual disabilities would have roles in planning, promoting, preparing, and supporting a professional golf event anywhere in the world.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Darrell Dalton is the founder and president of Golf Programs Australia Incorporated. (ABC Sunshine Coast: Meg Bolton\u00a0)<\/p>\n
He said it was “more than a world-first golf tournament, it is a statement about inclusion, opportunity, and breaking down barriers”.<\/p>\n
The landmark inclusive contest is set to feature Professional Golfers Association of Australia (PGA) professionals teamed up with amateurs in a combined Stableford format at the Glenview Par 3 Golf Course.<\/p>\n
“To have the PGA recognise our work and ask us to host this event is not only a significant milestone for the charity, but also for our differently abled golfers and golf generally,” Mr Dalton said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr Dalton says he wants the golf world to be inclusive towards people with a disability. (Supplied)<\/p>\n
During the event, GPAI’s golfers would hand out welcome kits, manage car parking, direct players to registration, photography, and on-course staging, and hold quiet-please signs.<\/p>\n
Mr Dalton admitted golf was not an inclusive sport, but he hoped to change that.<\/p>\n
“It’s a catchcry at the moment,” the 64-year-old professional golfer said.<\/p>\n
“There are some golf clubs that are inclusive, and they’re becoming more inclusive, but it’s just about breaking down those barriers.<\/p>\n
“Once people meet our people, they just fall in love with them.”<\/p>\n
Mr Smaldon is on the welcome team for the tournament.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n
Mr Smaldon, who is on the tournament’s welcome team, said he hoped to ask the professional for some tips.<\/p>\n
“I’m looking forward [to it],” he said.<\/p>\n
The national tournament coordinator for the PGA of Australia, Peter Welden, said the event was a welcome addition to the professional golf calendar.<\/p>\n
“There has been a major focus in recent years to promote inclusivity in many of our main tournaments, and we see this event as a natural extension of that,” he said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mr Dalton says event was another step towards the charity’s goal of creating a purpose-built golf facility fully staffed by 80 to 90 people with intellectual disabilities. (Supplied.)<\/p>\n
On the day of the event, Mr Dalton said he would be feeling a “sense of achievement”.<\/p>\n
He said GPAI had been an “11-year overnight success,” having been established in 2014.<\/p>\n
“Since first sharing our vision for this tournament, it has been exciting to have teams and sponsors signing on, and the community get behind the pro-am,” Mr Dalton said.<\/p>\n
He said the event was another step towards the charity’s goal of creating a purpose-built golf facility fully staffed by 80 to 90 people with intellectual disabilities.<\/p>\n
“But we need the support of the golfing industry and the golfing community,” Mr Dalton said.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stephen Hassall says the golfers at GPAI are like a family to him.\u00a0 (Supplied)<\/p>\n
‘Like a duck to water’\u00a0<\/p>\n
GPAI has given golfers like Stephen Hassall a sense of purpose in life.<\/p>\n
“I’m getting myself back in the workforce after a long period where I had to retire basically,” the 53-year-old, who has a disability, said.<\/p>\n
Before joining the charity in 2022, Mr Hassall said he didn’t believe he could play golf.<\/p>\n
“I took to golf like a duck to water,” he said.<\/p>\n
He said, despite a bit of competitiveness on the course, all the athletes supported and encouraged each other.<\/p>\n
“We are all great mates \u2026 like a family atmosphere. I really feel like I belong,” Mr Hassall said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"If you ask golfer Bailey Smaldon, he will tell you he has the best swing among his teammates…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":315615,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[566],"tags":[64,63,7110,755,176735,39497,178373,85,11942],"class_list":{"0":"post-315614","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-golf","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-disability","11":"tag-golf","12":"tag-intellectual-disability","13":"tag-pga","14":"tag-special-olympics","15":"tag-sports","16":"tag-sunshine-coast"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315614","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=315614"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/315614\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/315615"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=315614"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=315614"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=315614"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}