Conor Stone will be making a "dream come true" when he makes his G4D debut at the G4D @ ISPS Handa World Invitational Presented by Aviv Clinics.
The Irishman started playing golf at 13 and was off scratch four years later but was diagnosed with a progressive form of Kyphoscoliosis and by 20 he was unable to play golf due to the severity of the curvature in his spine and associated pain.
Surgery before his 22nd birthday and two tough years of rehabilitation gave Stone a slow path back into golf but he truly got his appetite for the game back after watching some of his opponents this week at Galgorm Castle Golf Club.
After watching the inaugural EDGA Scottish Open at The Renaissance Club in 2019, he became inspired to reconnect with the game and now playing off +1.1 and at Number 13 in the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD), he is delighted to be at golf for the disabled's top table.
"Since first watching Brendan (Lawlor) and Juan (Postigo) and all the guys playing in Scotland a few years ago, I’ve been inspired by EDGA and what opportunities lay ahead," he said.
"That’s when I first found out what EDGA was and it inspired me to get back into golf, start practising and gave me an incentive to play good golf again, which I’d lost. I’d pretty much given up on golf.
"Players like ourselves who have been dealt a bad hand in life have such a good opportunity in the game of golf.
"I played my first event in September last year and since then my main goal was to qualify for a G4D Tour event. Now to play in one, I’m over the moon. It’s a dream come true.
It’s going to be an unbelievable experience. It’s everything I dreamed of as a kid. It’s unbelievable
"I’ve played a lot of events in the last nine months to get up the Rankings, played in the Netherlands, Portugal, won in France and England this year and won with Ireland at the European Team Championships in Belgium.
"I’ve put a lot of commitment and time into my game to get up these Rankings. To move up the Rankings to qualify for one of these events is amazing.
"I just can’t wait to tee it up alongside these guys, use the same driving range as the DP World Tour professionals, use the same facilities at the same time.
"It’s going to be an unbelievable experience. It’s everything I dreamed of as a kid. It’s unbelievable."
