PGA professional Scott McDermott is impacting the lives of people both on and off the golf course.
Scott McDermott is well aware that coaching in the All-Abilities space is changing lives. What is perhaps less obvious right now, is how it is changing his.
Based at the PGA Academy at Sandhurst in Melbourne’s south-east, McDermott’s first exposure to coaching people with a disability was initially with a hearing-impaired student. A non-verbal, wheelchair-bound student with cerebral palsy and limited physical movement was his next project of discovery.
In more than a decade since, McDermott has coached people across the full gamut of physical and mental disabilities, but all with the same simple intention.
“I am here to help them to achieve their goals,” McDermott explains.
“Golf itself may only be a small part of that. They may want to lose weight, spend more time exercising outdoors or to develop a social connection. Are you changing someone’s life? One hundred per cent. Are we doing it through playing golf? Absolutely.”
A joint initiative of the PGA of Australia and Golf Australia, the PGA All-Abilities Coach Accreditation has given professionals such as McDermott the framework to offer coaching to people with a disability. Funding is available through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) for most people depending on their plan, which makes golf coaching not only financially viable, but accessible to a great many more people.
The impacts are wide-reaching and, in some cases, life saving. McDermott has a golfer with Prader-Willi Syndrome that causes obesity, intellectual disability and shortness in height.
“When I first met him, he was a touch under 160 kilograms and now he’s at 139,” McDermott says. “In the time that he has been playing golf, his blood glucose levels have gone from 15 to 6.8.”
Another of McDermott’s students had his licence suspended six times because driving at speeds in excess of 150km/h on the freeway was how he emotionally regulated. In 18 months of playing golf, he didn’t have his licence suspended once.
“He was able to communicate better, he was regulating better, he was making friendships again,” McDermott explains. “It was because he was able to take his frustration out on an impact bag as opposed to jumping in his car and going 155km/h.”
Another became an incomplete quadriplegic but is back to playing golf and regularly hitting drives 240 metres down the middle of the fairway.
McDermott is quick to point out that any PGA professional working in the All-Abilities space will have similar stories to share.
Such is his passion for the impact he is having on people’s lives, McDermott wants to become the pre-eminent All-Abilities golf coach in the world. He wants to understand the physical and mental challenges faced by people with a disability so that he can help to devise a pathway
into golf for anyone and everyone.
Watching how All-Abilities golfers interact at tournaments such as the Special Olympics and the sense of accomplishment they receive from it is all the fuel McDermott needs to commit his professional life to it.
“Sam Smyth came third at the Special Olympics and said, ‘This is the greatest achievement of my life,’” McDermott adds. “That comment makes it all worth it and gets you ready to do it all again, because this is bigger than me and I am here to assist people to reach their goals.
“There’s a great quote in ‘Ted Lasso’ where he says, ‘I’m curious, not judgmental.’ We all need to be more curious and less judgmental. I love what I do because they create a humility that makes you realise we need to behave more like they do. It’s all OK and we’re here for each other. They’re just golfers and friends and part of something bigger than themselves.”
• To find an All-Abilities-accredited PGA professional near you, visit pga.org.au/find-a-pga-pro/
