LEGLESS AIRMAN AS GOLFER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26047, 10 January 1946, Page 3

LEGLESS AIRMAN AS GOLFER

The legless, air ace, Group Captain Douglas Bader, D.S.O. and Bar, and triple D.F.C., was a competitor in the first post-war Royal Air Force golf tournament, held recently at Moot Park, Itlckmansworth, Hertfordshire. Bader plays from a 9 handicap and in a stroke competition he finished among the leaders with a net 80 against a field which included a fair sprinkling of British international golfers and county champions. He uses a short back swing with all his clubs, and, being endowed with strong wrists and forearms, he is able to get plenty of distance from a short follow-through. Bader walks around without assistance, and even plays accurate shots off sloping ground and out of bunkers, although sometimes balanced almost on one of his artificial legs. He frequently plays 36 holes in a day. Bader’s golf is of the care-free variety, and, like most other golfers, he is keen to reduce his handicap. Under the tuition of Henry cotton, who is a specialist in coaching partially disabled golfers, Douglas Bader hopes to reduce his handicap to 3, which would be yet another tribute to the fighting qualities of this great-hearted warrior.