\n Nlareb lived with his dad and stepmom in a house near Yaound\u00e9 Golf Club in Cameroon\u2019s capital after his mother\u2019s death, leaving school and taking care of four step-siblings before running away from home a year later.\n <\/p>\n
\n Eleven years old, \u201cpissed off\u201d at the situation and living on the streets, most nights he was picked up by the police and brought in to sleep in the station. One evening, though, he ran.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI hid myself in the golf course. When I stand up in the morning in the golf course, I was looking around me and I found a golf ball. And I took two golf balls, I went out, and I see the golf course. When I see the golf course, I was like, \u2018Wow,\u2019\u201d Nlareb said.\n <\/p>\n
\n Impressed by the scale and grandeur of the course and thinking the balls belonged to the players on the hole, he washed and offered them to the men. They gave him a dollar in return.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThat was my first contact with golf,\u201d Nlareb said.\n <\/p>\n
\n With no school, he spent a lot of his time watching the players at Yaound\u00e9 Golf Club\ufeff, thinking about how the players could improve their shots. He visualized this all without owning a club or having played a round.\n <\/p>\n
\n There was one man \u2013 who Nlareb recalls as \u201cMr. Davou\u201d \u2013 who attempted the same shot day after day on the 13th hole.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019s out of bounds to the right, water in front of the green and behind the green. So, the guy was trying to go over the water every time and he lost some balls,\u201d Nlareb said, smiling at the memory. \u201cI was laughing, and he say, \u2018Stop laughing. What can you do in this position?\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Despite never having swung a club, the 11-year-old had been learning the game since earning that first dollar and decided to offer some wisdom: \u201cI say, \u2018You got to play to the left, and you come back right to play the green.\u2019 And he said, \u2018Come, we make a challenge.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n Davou handed him a three iron \u2013 not an easy club for even a more seasoned golfer. But Nlareb was up for the challenge and made it onto the green following the path he advised Davou to take. His success earned him his first golf club \u2013 that hard-to-hit three iron.\n <\/p>\n
\n Nlareb continued collecting and cleaning balls, practicing with his iron and developed friendships with the golfers. He often helped players aim shots and find their balls on the hilly course.\n <\/p>\n
\n All that time, he was on his own from age 11 to 17; no family, no school, just the money he could earn at markets and on the course. It was only once an aunt learned of his whereabouts and that he hadn\u2019t heard from his father in six years that Nlareb returned home and went back to school to take his caddie exams.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI was playing golf when I was 12, but I was not playing the regular golf like stroke play, 18 holes. No, I was playing three holes, one hole, half a hole sometimes,\u201d Nlareb remembered.\n <\/p>\n
\n Caddying at Yaound\u00e9 Golf Club allowed him to play complete rounds once a week \u2013 usually Mondays after events finished for the day. Things soon accelerated after that.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cAfter a year, I was number one of the caddies,\u201d Nlareb said. \u201cSo, I turned pro in 2009 in Yaound\u00e9.\u201d He didn\u2019t buy his first set of clubs until after turning professional.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cMy dream was to be the best player in the world, but my other was to beat Tiger Woods,\u201d Nlareb said. \u201c(But) I realized that there\u2019s a big difference between the course Tiger Woods is playing and the course I play. \u2026 So, I (got) my first golf lesson when I was 24 (in 2015),\u201d Nlareb told CNN Sports.\n <\/p>\n
\n After more than five years competing on African tours, Nlareb set goals for himself to slowly work toward those dreams. In 2015, he decided to try his hand at qualifying for the third division circuit in Europe, the Alps Tour. He had three young children and, with two quick wins at the Gabon and Senegal Opens, was at the peak of his career and personal life up to that point. That is until he fell ill at the Ein Bay Open in Egypt in February 2018.\n <\/p>\n
\n He awoke from a five-day coma to learn he had contracted bacterial meningitis and had developed septic shock. A terrified Nlareb was told he needed to have both legs above the knee and both arms above the elbow amputated.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cI refused because I was so afraid,\u201d Nlareb said. \u201cI say, \u2018Why?\u2019 and I say, \u2018No, no, no, don\u2019t do that. Leave me dead.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n
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\n The fear was all-encompassing: Nlareb couldn\u2019t imagine a life with no arms or legs. He waited a month until his visa in Egypt ended and transferred to a Cameroonian hospital. There, he once again heard a prognosis he wasn\u2019t ready to accept.\n <\/p>\n
\n His stepmother was working in Belgium at the time and called local hospitals to see if they would take Nlareb\u2019s case. He flew to Brussels where his latest doctor sat him down and explained amputation was his only viable option, although things had slightly improved.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cHe wrote everything (down for) me. He showed me. And I (saw) that difference between the last two months where I would get to be amputated and where I would be amputated right now.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Three months after waking from his coma, Nlareb underwent an operation and had both legs below the knee and most of his fingers amputated.\n <\/p>\n
\n In his recovery process, the doctor explained the importance of taking things slow \u2013 starting with just 30 minutes a day of getting used to his prosthetics and building up from there. However, after a further three months in isolation to rebuild his immune system, he was eager to establish his new normal as soon as possible.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cWhen they put me in the prosthetics, I walked all day long. But it was a big mistake,\u201d he remembered. \u201cI wore off my skin. I was not able anymore to put the prosthetics on my feet.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere\u2019d be pain for me. I was tight in my heart. I cry.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Nlareb refused to think about golf after his amputations: \u201cI forget about golf. I give up.\u201d He went \u201cback (to Cameroon) to take care of my family, enjoy my life,\u201d adding that he didn\u2019t \u201cwant to play anymore golf because I was so sad.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n However, his friends had other plans. They forced him back onto a course a couple of months post-surgery to help his physical and mental recovery.\n <\/p>\n
\n His first swing back on the course went \u201c50 meters (55 yards) with one hand.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n For the 6-foot-4-inch Nlareb, who was used to crushing his drives well over 200 yards before his illness, it was a difficult thing to take.\n <\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-1601219583.jpg\")
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\n It was at that point that he turned his focus to teaching. He went to school for two years to grow and develop as a golf teaching professional and began coaching a team in Cameroon: \u201cI learned how to share my passion with people.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n However, a tournament at the end of 2019 left him fuming. \u201cThey played so bad. \u2026 I was so pissed off,\u201d Nlareb said. \u201cHow\u2019d they do that? Even me, (hitting) 50 meters, I can make bogey in the hole. How can they play so bad?\u201d\n <\/p>\n
\n Angry and disappointed, he didn\u2019t expect his then five-year-old daughter to find the solution.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cShe smiled and said, \u2018Dad, you need to play golf,\u2019\u201d Nlareb recalled. His daughter suggested wrapping a strap around his hands and club to give him the power and grip to swing with two hands again.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cIt was eight o\u2019clock \u2013 in Cameroon, night comes at seven \u2013 I was like, \u2018Why don\u2019t you come with (me) and we run and go directly to golf?\u2019\u201d The father and daughter spent all night at the course.\n <\/p>\n
\n In 2019, Nlareb returned to the pro game via the African Golf Tour. Two years later, now residing in France, he made a remarkable comeback, making the cut in the very Alps Tour tournament he contracted meningitis three years earlier.\n <\/p>\n
\n The World Golf rankings for people with disabilities was created in 2019, a year after Nlareb\u2019s illness and amputations, while the Golf for the Disabled (G4D) Tour didn\u2019t launch until February 2022. Disability golf events are still in their infancy.\n <\/p>\n
\n Last year, Nlareb played in the third annual US Adaptive Open \u2013 his first time visiting the United States \u2013 where he won the multiple limb amputee category and placed fourth overall for men. He won the same category and finished tied for seventh overall this year.\n <\/p>\n
\n What did he earn for twice winning his category and two top-10 finishes? Nothing.\n <\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere is not currently a purse for the U.S. Adaptive Open,\u201d the USGA confirmed in an email to CNN Sports. \u201cWe announced recently that Deloitte will provide financial support in the form of travel-related expense reimbursements to all players in the field this year, and we are incredibly excited about that.\u201d\n <\/p>\n
![\"Nlareb](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/gettyimages-1600709368.jpg\")
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\n Nlareb estimated it would have cost $10,000 to take part in the US Adaptive Open if he didn\u2019t have sponsors and hadn\u2019t received an exemption into the tournament due to his result at last summer\u2019s edition.\n <\/p>\n