The courageous battle to get back on the course
Ian St John
It is said that life is precious and unpredictable. One never knows what the future may hold, and that everything can change within seconds.
For Ian St. John, the summer of 2016 was one of those moments. He had a wonderful job at Rush Golf Club, where he was the very popular PGA Professional. He had a beautiful wife, Orla, who was eight months pregnant with their second child. He had a house in Dublin and a life that was perfect in almost every way.
But that picture-perfect scenario was about to be shattered when a mystery illness rendered Ian paralysed from the waist down and left him lying in a hospital bed, wondering what the future might hold.
“You know, the world had turned upside down. I had to leave my job. We had to leave our house in Dublin. You know, we needed support, Orla, as well, with the kids and everything. So, if you can imagine, really, a chronic situation, this was it.”
One legal case later, resolved to the benefit of the Tramore man, and it’s a new chapter.
“There was a legal case. It's all been sorted out now, thank God, with acceptance by the hospital, you know. So that was a relief. But still.” He trails off, as perhaps a memory of that dark time comes flooding back.
But fast forward nine years, and there is a new beginning, a new life back in his hometown, and a new spark that has been ignited by his ability to return to the game he loves.
“I can't believe how, I suppose, where I am in terms of happiness. I mean, I get up every day and I'm just delighted. Delighted to be here. And it's down to the support that I have. I know people will say, look, inspirational, all that thing, but it's not. The biggest thing I can say about the people that inspire me is the people that don't have support, you know, and they're amazing. And I've gotten to know quite a few of them.”
He doesn’t dwell on the past and what might have been. The ability to forge a new path is the inspiration. And the irony is not lost on him.
“It's never lost on me that I wouldn't be going here if I wasn't paralyzed. You know, I wouldn't be going to any of these events. So you have to laugh at it and go, yeah, OK, disaster, and everything like that. And look, I'd love to be up walking and all the rest.
“I suppose the biggest thing is acceptance. I said it for eight years that, no, I wouldn't accept this. I don't accept it. I'm living with it. I don't accept it. But a friend of mine, a solicitor as well, said, Look, he told me to cop on and say it is acceptance.
“It is that. It is. I do accept the way I am and the situation that I'm in. But I mean, I have a wonderful life. Wonderful life. And I get to go to all these events.” “You know, I spent a year in the hospital. I thought that I'd never play golf again. The Ryder Cup was on. I didn't watch any of it. I just couldn't.
“I'm lying down in one of the beds in the NRH (National Rehabilitation Hospital), and this lady comes in on this machine and comes up to me. I didn't know who she was. And she says, ‘I hear you play golf’.
“I said, I do. She said, I do too. And I'm looking at her. I said, How? How do you do it? And she says, “Basically, in this machine, it stands me up and I play with this. And it was like a spark, you know.”
St John was determined to get himself one of these machines called a Paragolfer – no mean feat with a price tag of around €35000.
“I managed to get one. I've had to learn how to play golf. Although I'm still doing it. I've been in it for two and a half years now. And it's been two and a half years of complete frustration. Complete frustration. But I'm on the other side of it now, I think, in terms of the equipment that I use. I've changed equipment so many times.” His standard continues to improve, and he now finds himself inside the top 100 elite disabled golfers in the world, and with the competitive juices flowing.
He managed to get into the US Disabled Golf Championships in Florida this past week, and a fine showing saw him finish inside the top three in his category and 38th in the overall championship.
A brief return home for his daughter’s communion sandwiches his trip to Woburn for the British Open, and he has more tournaments on the horizon.
“I'm in South Africa for the South African Open, again over to Canada for the Canadian Open, and there are a few others. So, it's really like golf has absolutely saved my life. The Paragolfer has saved my life.
“I make no short comments that it really has, because it's given me a purpose, I suppose. It's given me a purpose, something to do and try and improve on. And here I am, I'm going up against the best now, the best of the best, and I can't wait.”
This newfound status brings with it some pressures, and the physical effects of being paralysed mean there is always work to be done.
“I decided to knuckle down in October of last year. And I said, look, if I'm going to go away to these events, and if I'm going to be away from my family, I'm going to give it the best chance possible.
“That meant gym work. I'm six days a week in the gym that I have at home. And I'm getting up to Tramore Golf Club to practice as much as I can. And I'm finally in a place where I know I can compete.” And when the topic of finance comes up, Ian is sanguine about the limitations of trying to resource these new challenges.
“Now, fortunately, by law, airlines have to take my wheelchair and they have to take my electric wheelchair, which is the Paragolfer.
“So there's no cost for that. There are extra costs when I have to get a hotel room that is slightly different and has a roll-in shower and all the rest of it.
“Thankfully, Golf Ireland introduced a bursary scheme last year where they paid €500 per event, which is great. They've doubled it so it's up to €1,000, which is wonderful. But the costs are huge, and it's always about the logistics.
“It can be painful at times to try and get that sorted out, especially when you have to contact the hotel directly and you're asking them then to send on a picture of the roll in shower because I might not be able to get my chair in there/.
“My kind of idea, if you want, is that if I feel like I can do well and get some sort of a position in the game that then I can start looking for sponsorship to get away because it does cost an awful lot of money!”
