Field confirmed for inaugural G4D Tour Nations Cup @ Betfred British Masters
Kipp Popert. Picture: Getty Images
The inaugural G4D Tour Nations Cup @ Betfred British Masters takes place from August 26-27, with five players making their G4D Tour debuts at The Belfry.
The G4D Tour is holding its first team event, with 12 of the world's best golfers with disability teeing it up at the storied venue, which has hosted team golf's greatest spectacle - the Ryder Cup - four times.
One male player and one female player from Canada, England, Germany, Ireland, The Netherlands and the United States of America will tee it up on the Brabazon Course as the six nations compete to lift the inaugural G4D Tour Nations Cup.
Scoring will be stroke play and day one will feature three groups of fourballs, with the lowest score from each team taken on each hole, while the format will switch to foursomes on the second day.
England will be represented by Kipp Popert, the most successful player in G4D Tour history, who will return to a happy hunting ground.
Popert - born with a form of Cerebral Palsy called spastic diplegia which impairs the muscular movement in his legs - is Number One on the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD) and has ten G4D Tour victories, including the last two individual editions of this event.
Popert will be joined by Heather Gilks, who makes her regular G4D Tour debut this week and, like Popert, has Cerebral Palsy, affecting both her legs and her left arm.
The 19-year-old, a 7.1 handicapper, made history this summer as she and her mother, Martine, became the first mother and daughter to play in the same edition of the G4D Open.
Brendan Lawlor is another player who will be familiar to most having developed an intriguing rivalry with Popert.
Born with the rare bone disorder, Ellis-Van Creveld Syndrome, characterised by a shorter stature and shorter limbs, Lawlor was the first disabled golfer to compete on the DP World Tour at the ISPS HANDA UK Championship in August 2020.
The 27-year-old will represent Ireland alongside Fiona Gray, who has undergone ten knee surgeries following a distinguished 20-year career in the British Army, which ended with medical discharge in 2014.
Team Canada will be spearheaded by Kurtis Barkley, a G4D Tour regular who was born with scoliosis (curvature of the spine) and is yet to win on the circuit, despite finishing as runner-up seven times.
Barkley will team up with Natasha Stasiuk, who lives with Autism which also includes managing an auditory processing condition.
Stasiuk and Gilks are two of five G4D Tour debutants in the field next week, alongside Mari Berkers of the Netherlands, American Eliseo Villanueva and Germany’s Rene Schwenk.
The G4D Tour was launched in 2022 as a partnership between the DP World Tour and EDGA, formally the European Disabled Golf Association.
The G4D player pathway aims to cater for everyone with a disability who wants to play golf, and for many, the G4D Tour is seen as the pinnacle of competition with competitors playing on the same course, in the same week, as the leading Tour professionals on the DP World Tour.
Due to the European Tour group’s ongoing financial support, EDGA has been able to raise awareness, confirm eligibility, organise tournaments, and deliver golf development and coach education worldwide.
This has seen the number of golfers with disabilities in the World Rankings increase by 32% from 2022, with players from 46 countries represented - up from 33 the previous year.
To learn how to take part in golf for the disabled, please visit www.edgagolf.com
Each country’s team is listed below. Please click on the players’ names to view their respective profiles.
Nation Male Player Female Player
Canada Kurtis Barkley/Natasha Stasiuk
England Kipp Popert/Heather Gilks
Germany Rene Schwenk/Jennifer Sraga
Ireland Brendan Lawlor/Fiona Gray
The Netherlands Mari Berkers/Daphne Van Houten
United States of America Eliseo Villanueva/ Ryanne Jackson
