“When I was a little boy the doctors told my family that I wouldn’t be able to walk, run, bike or swim and would spend the rest of my life in a wheelchair.”
When he was three years old, Guy Harrison suffered a massive seizure which briefly left him dead before he was revived by doctors.
The incident caused brain damage and he was diagnosed with cerebral palsy.
Despite a difficult start in life, the support of his family and his passion for sport has played an integral part in his path to making his G4D Tour debut at the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters.
“Nobody knows how and why this all happened to me, but with the support of my parents we proved the doctors wrong and kept me out of the wheelchair using golf and swimming a lot to help me," he says.
"I started my golf at five years old, going out a couple of times a week with my Dad at a local nine-hole public golf course and it just went from there.”
Now 23, the New Zealander is inside the top 30 in the Net World Ranking for Golfers with Disability and set to take his place in a ten-strong field for the two-day event at Real Club de Golf Sotogrande from October 14-15.
“Golf is my true love – getting out on the course with mates, seeing new places," he says. "It was a massive benefit to start golf at a young age so I can enjoy progress in the game.”
From an early age Harrison started to experience steady improvement in his game, representing his school team and playing in national junior events, always backed by parents Keith and Vickie, who are both local high school teachers.
From Napier on the eastern coast of New Zealand’s North Island, he often plays with his father, who introduced him to the sport, and sister, Nina, having now played 218 courses and counting in New Zealand alone.
"As many families out there know, it is not easy having a disability, or supporting someone who has one," adds Harrison who will have his Dad as his caddie in Spain. .
"There are many barriers which surface every day, especially coming through school, but golf has been important for me to help with my mental outlook.”
After seeing a promotional poster for an event at a local golf club, he played in his first G4D tournament in 2019.
Since then he has played 15 G4D events around New Zealand, run by Golf New Zealand and Disability Golf NZ.
“When you play well it is a hard feeling to explain: you kind of get into the zone and have that massive feeling of happiness which stays with you when you leave the course to continue on with the rest of your day," he explains of his love for the sport.
The positive power of sport to enhance people’s lives is clearly a key learning for Harrison who in 2023 completed his degree in Sport & Exercise Science at the Eastern Institute of Technology in Napier.
Now, he is about to take another step in his dream to play at the highest level possible on a global stage, while he also wants to use his experiences to help other young people with disabilities to reach their own potential.
“Growing up with cerebral palsy wasn’t easy and I battled in school with dyslexia: It was all a slow process," he said.
"My disorder has a major effect with my movement being jerky and with a low level of balance.
"This is slowly getting worse but I’m trying to achieve everything I can at the moment."
