Andy DevaneyChildren with upper body limb differences took centre stage at the BMW Championship community day, using 3D-printed prosthetics and a mobile golf simulator to show what meaningful access to the game can look like.
Golf spends plenty of time talking about access. At Wentworth on Tuesday, the Kate and Justin Rose Foundation showed what that word can look like in practice: children with upper body limb differences hitting golf shots with 3D-printed prosthetics before putting their skills to the test in a simulator competition.
The children were attending the BMW Championship community day through Sport for All UK, an initiative funded by the Foundation that gives young people with upper body limb differences the opportunity to play golf.
Central to the programme are prosthetics produced by Koalaa and funded through the Foundation. At Wentworth, several of the young participants were able to use them inside one of the KJRF’s Dryvebox mobile golf simulators.
It made for a neatly joined-up example of golf accessibility: provide equipment that enables a child to play, then bring the game somewhere they can actually use it.
From prosthetics to playing opportunities
The technology is important, but only because of what it allows somebody to do.
Sport for All UK combines the Koalaa 3D-printed prosthetics with opportunities for children to experience golf, while the Foundation’s Dryvebox simulators are designed to take the sport into inner-city schools and communities around the UK.
At Wentworth, those two strands met in a competition.
Justin Rose was able to watch the children using prosthetics his Foundation has helped fund, rather than simply hearing about the programme from a distance.
“It was a privilege to meet all of the children today and it makes me proud to know we are helping to deliver experiences that will stay with them forever,” he said.
Justin Rose gets a close look at the programme
For Rose, the most striking part of the day appears to have been the way the children approached the golf itself.
“I enjoyed seeing the children striking the ball using the prosthetics we have funded through our Foundation. Their passion, self-belief and support of one another was so inspiring.”
There was still room for competition. The young players took on the Dryvebox challenge in front of Kate and Justin Rose, giving the day a sporting element rather than turning it into little more than a ceremonial appearance.
Rose added: “The Dryvebox itself is a lot of fun to play golf in and the children really put on a great display for us all.”
A different job for the golf simulator
The Dryvebox is significant here because its purpose goes beyond staging one event at Wentworth.
The mobile simulators are being used by the Kate and Justin Rose Foundation to bring golf into inner-city schools and communities across the UK. Instead of requiring new players to find their way to the game, the concept brings a playable version of the game to them.
For the children involved with Sport for All UK, that approach can work alongside equipment designed around their needs.
It is a practical model of accessibility rather than an abstract one: remove a physical obstacle where possible, improve access to somewhere to play and give children the chance to discover what they can do.
Kate Rose sees a long-held ambition at Wentworth
For Kate Rose, Chair of the Kate & Justin Rose Foundation, bringing children supported by its programmes to Wentworth had been a specific ambition.
“It was always a dream of ours to bring some of the children that our Foundation supports to Wentworth. It was fantastic to see their reaction when they saw the Dryvebox, and even more rewarding to see how well they played in it.”
The Foundation was created to provide opportunities for disadvantaged young people in the UK to experience golf, and the Wentworth event put that aim in unusually visible form.
“Our Foundation was created to provide opportunities for disadvantaged young people in the UK to experience the lifetime rewards of golf and today it was an absolute pleasure to see how that ambition is being fulfilled.”
For all the technology involved, the strongest part of the day was fairly simple. The prosthetics and simulator were doing their jobs because the children were able to get on with playing golf.
Further information about the Kate & Justin Rose Foundation and its projects is available through Justin Rose’s official website.
