Johannes Veerman may be creating fireworks on the golf course at the 2021 Dubai Duty Free Irish Open but it was fireworks that almost saw him pounding hospital corridors rather than the fairways of Mount Juliet Golf Estate this week.
The 29-year-old fired a third round 67 to sit just one shot off the lead heading into the final day in County Kilkenny but it all could have been very different had he not suffered an accident as a younger man.
He was involved in a fireworks incident that almost led to him losing his thumb and that inspired him to study medicine at university in the United States alongside his collegiate golf career.
But when he took up his volunteer placements in hospitals, the doctors working there convinced him that golf would be a preferable career path.
"Growing up, the dream was always to play golf," he said.
"When I got into an accident with the fireworks, I blew my thumb off. When they stitched it back together, that was a very life changing moment and kind of puts things into a new perspective. I thought, 'hey, if I became a doctor I could be really impactful to people'.
"So I started studying medicine. All the doctors who I was hanging out with said, 'Everybody here wants to be on the golf course, what are you doing?'
"I thought would I give professional golf a go and here I am, still giving it a go.
"It's also one of those things where you practise your whole life and if you don't give it a go, kind of fall short, you never want to live with the what if; what if I tried and I actually could have become a professional golfer?
"Like that wasn't good enough for me. So I had to go and give it a try and now, here I am."
