Q Golf - Official online magazine for Golf Queensland Summer 2016 | Página 12

Inspired by Jack Newton

How disabled Cody was able to conquer

‘The Beautiful Game’
By Tony Durkin
Former Australian Open winner and British Open runnerup, Jack Newton was, and still is, an inspirational golfer.
During the 70s Newton won in the US, Europe and
Australia, accumulating 10 big-time victories. But his
career was cut short when he walked into an aeroplane
propeller 33 years ago, losing his right arm and eye, and
sustaining severe abdominal injuries.
That Newtown still plays golf and regularly scores in the
80s has motivated people like Cody Laskey to put their
disabilities aside and have a crack at a sport that can
conquer the best of us. After all, while golf may be
known as the beautiful game, many suspect it is called
golf because some more popular four-letter words were
already taken.

The greatest of those obstacles was maintaining his
balance – not easy for someone who uses two crutches
in his everyday life. But he has found a way, even on the
somewhat hilly Headland course.
“I have no idea how I actually discovered the art of keeping
my balance while hitting the golf ball, but I have done it,”
he quipped.
“When I first started playing I had heaps of advice from
people on how to play golf, but no-one could help when it
came to the balancing act. But like everything else in life,
practise makes perfect and now it is second nature to me.”
Cody plays off a handicap of 17 on the difficult Headland
course, but has been as low as 14 back in Margaret River.
His handicap has blown out, he says, because his short
game is not what it once was.

Cody suffers from Spina Bifida, a birth defect that affects
the spinal cord. He has no feeling in his toes, feet or
ankles, and most of the lower part of his body suffers a
degree of paralysis.
But that doesn’t stop the 27-year-old Zoologist from
playing the game he loves. Or surfing, or practically
anything, for that matter.
Cody is a member of Buderim’s Headland Golf Club on
the Sunshine Coast an d plays regularly – although not as
regularly as he would like. The cost of hiring a cart plus
competition fees is an expensive item in the budget of an
unemployed zookeeper.
But his long-term goal to become a single marker and
hopefully win a club championship very much depends on
him playing more, and practising more, something he did
when he first started playing as a 13-year-old back in his
hometown of Margaret River in WA.
“A friend of my mum visited from the US and he introduced
me to golf,” Cody recalled.
“Even though I found it really difficult to play because of
my disability, I was hooked. I wanted to conquer the game,
so straight away I realised I had to find a way to overcome
the difficulties.”

12 Q Golf

Summer 2016

Cody with Stuart Appleby thanks to the Make a Wish Program

www.golfqueensland.org.au