ISPS Handa All-Abilities Competition at World Champions Cup to showcase top players in World Ranking for Golfers with Disability

BRADENTON, Fla. – The World Champions Cup and ISPS Handa announced Monday that the ISPS Handa All-Abilities Competition will be contested Dec. 7-8 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida. As a Founding Official Partner of the World Champions Cup, ISPS Handa is continuing its mission to further the transformative power of sport across the globe.

ISPS Handa funds and promotes blind and disabled golf with the belief that sport has a unique ability to create hope, to break down educational and cultural barriers and to inspire people in a way that can unite communities around the world.

“We are excited to be part of this terrific new tournament and to showcase some amazing golfers during the ISPS Handa All-Abilities Competition at the World Champions Cup,” said Dr. Haruhisa Handa, founder and chairman of the International Sports Promotion Society (ISPS Handa). “All abilities golfers are breaking new ground. It is wonderful to see incredible athletes of all abilities performing on stage together, as an inspiration for all. This is the power sport: fully inclusive and life without limits.”

The 27-hole ISPS Handa All-Abilities Competition at the World Champions Cup will be contested over two days – Thursday, Dec. 7, and Friday, Dec. 8. Rounds 1 and 2 will take place Thursday, with the third and final nine-hole round on Friday. Mirroring the World Champions Cup format and inspired by the passion and tradition of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, the ISPS Handa All-Abilities Competition will feature Team International, Team Europe and Team USA squaring off as the teams battle for international pride and global bragging rights.

The following nine players were selected based on their World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD) standing as of Oct. 20 (ranking in parentheses):

Team International

• Kurtis Barkley (No. 5) - Canada Barkley, born with a curvature of the spine, was one of eight golfers with a disability who qualified to play in two EDGA (formerly the European Disabled Golf Association) tournaments, on the same courses and on the same days as DP World Tour events in 2021.

• Lachlan Wood (No. 15) - Australia At the age of 15, Wood was sitting in the passenger seat of a car when it crashed into a pole at high speed and rolled over several times. The Australian sustained 12 broken bones in his left leg, many of the bones shattered. He underwent more than 30 operations and spent a year using a wheelchair and another using crutches. Two of his back muscles were removed and grafted onto his leg. He had to learn how to walk again on a leg that was 4 centimeters shorter than his right, and now a quarter of the size. He doubted if he’d ever play golf again.

• Chris Willis (No. 20) - CanadaWillis was born with numerous birth defects that affect his hearing, vertebrae, leg length discrepancy, hands (thumbs), esophagus and more. In 1985, at the age of 4, he had surgery on his left hand to make his index finger into a thumb because his thumb was small, oddly shaped and immobile. His right thumb also is oddly shaped but he can move it, so no surgery was necessary. Despite his birth defects, he has competed in two Canadian Amateur Championships and several Canadian Mid-Am Championships, Ontario and Canadian All-Abilities Championships, the G4D Open and a U.S. Adaptive Open. He has been a special education learning disabilities teacher for 16 years with the Toronto District School Board.

Team Europe

• Brendan Lawlor (No. 2) - Ireland Lawlor was born with a rare bone disorder Ellis-van Creveld syndrome, characterized by a shorter stature and shorter limbs.
• Juan Postigo (No. 4) - Spain Postigo was born without much of his right leg and no knee, but since starting to play golf at age 12 has gone on to become ranked as high as No. 3 in the WR4GD.

• Tommaso Perrino (No. 6) - Italy Perrino suffered a scooter accident, limiting the functionality of one leg, when he was 17 in 2001. He has since gone on to become one of EDGA’s leading players, currently ranked sixth in the WR4GD.

Team USA

• Jack Bonifant (No. 17) - Kensington, Maryland Bonifant, 33, suffered a fractured skull at 6 weeks old that required nine hours of surgery, 10 years of rehabilitation and caused him to lose feeling on the entire left side of his body. Bonifant found inspiration from Jim Abbott, who was born without a right hand and pitched for 10 seasons in Major League Baseball. Bonifant earned a first-alternate spot in the 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship with partner Taso Scilaris.

• Luke Carroll (No. 25) - Old Hickory, Tennessee Carroll will graduate high school in 2024. At age 10, he was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder of the spinal cord. His great-grandfather, George Stinchcomb, was a golf instructor with Cleveland Metro Parks who shagged balls for Ben Hogan and also made custom golf clubs.

• Kenny Bontz (No. 33) - Parrish, Florida Bontz was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 11 and with Ewing sarcoma in his leg at 19 years old. Bontz underwent six knee replacements in nine years, leading him to choose amputation to get his life back after many years of opioid and alcohol addiction. He is a member of the EDGA.

The teams will play three nine-hole Singles matches, using the same points format as the World Champions Cup. A total of three points will be awarded on each hole based on each player's individual result. The player with the lowest score on each hole will receive two points. The player with the second-lowest score on a hole will receive one point. The player with the highest score will receive no points. Whenever players finish with the same score on a hole, they will be awarded the same number of points. If two players finish with the lowest score on a hole, each will receive one and a half points. The third player, finishing with the highest score, will receive no points. If all three players finish with the same score on a hole, each will receive one point.

If two or three teams are tied with the same amount of total points at the conclusion of play on Friday, a single individual will compete in a sudden-death playoff to determine the winner.

Each of the three teams competing in the World Champions Cup consists of six players, including a playing captain, and all are active PGA TOUR Champions members. World Golf Hall of Famer Ernie Els, 2011 Open champion Darren Clarke and 2003 U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk will each serve as playing captains in the first playing of the World Champions Cup. Jacobsen, a seven-time PGA TOUR winner and popular golf commentator, is the Chairman of the event.

Team International includes Els, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Steven Alker, Stephen Ames, K.J. Choi and Vice Captain Stuart Appleby. Team Europe’s roster features Clarke, Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Robert Karlsson, Alex Čejka and Vice Captain Jesper Parnevik. Team USA consists of Furyk, Steve Stricker, David Toms, Jerry Kelly, Justin Leonard, Brett Quigley and Vice Captain Billy Andrade.