Staff WriterThe G4D Open arrives at Celtic Manor Resort this week with a proper sense of occasion about it: new venue, global field, defending champions with targets on their backs, and 80 golfers ready to prove that elite competition rarely arrives in a neat, conventional package.
After three years at Woburn, the Championship moves to Wales for the first time, with the Roman Road Course staging the fourth edition from 14-16 May. It is a significant shift, not just in scenery, but in statement.
This is one of golf’s most inclusive championships, staged in partnership between the DP World Tour and The R&A, supported by EDGA, and built around competition rather than sentiment. The players are not here for applause alone. They are here for birdies, scorecards, trophies and the occasional internal argument with a putter that has gone quiet at precisely the wrong moment.
Celtic Manor Gets Its Turn On The World Stage
Celtic Manor is no stranger to serious golf. The Roman Road Course staged the Wales Open on the DP World Tour from 2005 to 2007 while the Twenty Ten Course was being built for the Ryder Cup, and later hosted the Wales Senior Open in 2015 and 2016.
Now it welcomes the G4D Open, and the setting feels fitting. Roman Road has enough width to invite courage, enough movement to punish lazy thinking, and enough Welsh weather potential to make club selection feel like a committee meeting in a wind tunnel.
The course has also undergone a rigorous assessment and enhancement programme before hosting the Championship, ensuring accessibility standards meet the demands of a field covering Standing, Intellectual, Visual and Sitting impairment groups.
That matters because this event is not being bent around the edges to accommodate elite disability golf. The venue has been prepared to stage it properly.
A Field With Reach, Depth And A Few Brilliant Stories
The field features representatives from 25 nations, five more than last year, with players ranging from Sweden’s 16-year-old Ville Engqvist to Japan’s 70-year-old Shigeru Kobayashi.
That is the sort of age spread that makes golf gloriously odd. In most sports, a 16-year-old and a 70-year-old sharing the same competitive stage would require either a clerical error or a charity auction. In golf, especially here, it feels entirely right.
There are 19 players making their G4D Open debuts, among them Richie Willis, a Celtic Manor member of 25 years who has played an estimated 3,000 rounds on Roman Road.
Willis, 68, needed an above-the-knee right leg amputation after a road traffic accident, and will have the honour of striking the opening tee shot at 8am. There are ceremonial moments in sport that feel manufactured. This one does not.
He is joined in the field by fellow Welsh player Dylan Baines.
England’s Lucy Leatham is another debutant. She became aware of the Championship after last year’s edition, following a life-changing car accident in late 2023 in which she lost her right arm. Her presence adds another powerful thread to a field already rich with resilience, talent and competitive bite.
Lawlor Returns Chasing A Third Straight Title
Ireland’s Brendan Lawlor arrives as one of the central figures. The 29-year-old, who has Ellis–van Creveld syndrome, won by four strokes over Australia’s Lachlan Wood last year, adding to his 2023 title.
He is back with the top four men on the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability all in the field: world number one and 2024 Champion Kipp Popert of England, Simon Seungmin Lee from the Republic of Korea, Wood and Lawlor.
That is not a soft defence. That is walking into a room where everyone has brought a sharp pencil and a grudge.
Lawlor, though, sounds ready for a different sort of test after the move from Woburn to Celtic Manor.
“The course looks quite open, a little bit different to Woburn. It looks like you can open up the shoulders a bit more this week. I’ll try and take advantage of the downwind holes, get it in the air. I’ll try to score and put myself in the last group on Saturday.
“The work The R&A and DP World Tour have done at this Championship is truly incredible. From the very first year, from Woburn, to where it is now. The most different thing I see is the amount of new players we have, and who are going to be contesting at the end of the week.
“There’s a guy actually from Ireland, Conal Flynn, who is 17. I did a video with him a few years ago in Ireland. He has dwarfism, same as me, and he’s playing here this week. Stories like that, to see the young generation come up, is great.
“I’m playing well. I’ve done a lot of travelling at the start of the year and been in Australia and America. I’ve been playing a lot of golf, probably more of a busier winter than I’d usually have. It’s nice to get out and just feel ready coming here.”
Van Houten Leads A Strong Women’s Field
In the women’s competition, Daphne van Houten from the Netherlands returns as defending champion and world number one.
The 27-year-old, born with scoliosis and having since faced other health battles, won last year’s women’s title by 11 strokes over Germany’s Jennifer Sräga. That followed her previous success and underlined her place at the top of the women’s G4D game.
Three of the top four women on the WR4GD are in the field this week: van Houten, Denmark’s Mette Wegge Lynggaard and Sräga.
There are 14 women competing overall, and the presence of established champions alongside first-time players gives the Championship its edge. It is not merely a showcase. It is a ranking event, a title defence, a proving ground and, for some, the first chance to measure themselves on this stage.
New Cut Format Adds Proper Championship Bite
For the first time in the Championship, there will be a cut.
The leading 20 men overall and ties, plus the top ten women overall and ties, will progress to the final round. In addition, the top three men in each sport class, where applicable, and top two women in each sport class, where applicable, will also qualify.
That tweak adds a little electricity. Every shot now carries more consequence. A loose wedge on day two is no longer just irritating; it might be the difference between playing the final round and watching it with a coffee, wondering why golf has such a cruel sense of humour.
The competition remains 54 holes of gross stroke play, with overall men’s and women’s winners crowned, alongside trophies across the nine sport classes.
More Than A Championship Week
Around the golf itself, demonstration and education activities are taking place to highlight how inclusive and accessible the sport can be.
Delegates from golf, health and sport industries, including national golf federations, are gathering to learn more about the G4D landscape. Local school children with special educational needs and disability are also being welcomed through Wales Golf and the Golf Foundation, while charity and community groups are being encouraged to try golf or rediscover it after illness or injury.
That is where this Championship lands with real weight. It has elite players at the sharp end, but the ripple effect reaches far beyond the leaderboard.
A child watching Lawlor, van Houten, Willis, Leatham or any of the 80 competitors may not see limitation. They may see a first lesson, a first range session, a first nine holes, or simply a way back into sport.
Free Entry For Spectators At Celtic Manor
Spectators are encouraged to attend The G4D Open at Celtic Manor, with both attendance and car parking free of charge.
That is a welcome touch. Great sport should be seen, and this field deserves a crowd. Not out of politeness, but because the golf will be worth watching.
The move to Wales gives the Championship a fresh stage, the champions arrive with plenty to defend, and the debutants bring the sort of human stories that remind you why golf still has the capacity to surprise.
At Celtic Manor this week, the scorecards will matter. So will the trophies. But the bigger picture is hard to miss: the G4D Open is growing, widening its reach, and showing exactly how competitive, technical and compelling disability golf can be when given the platform it deserves.
