Golf Pro Tour Magazine - Edição 03 - Abril de 2021 - Flipbook - Page 44
pág. 44
Director of Education & Membership
for the Professional Golfers
Association’s of Europe
For more than a decade, I would make the trip to Brazil at
least twice and sometimes four times every year. I enjoyed
every visit, but on one occasion I met a young man called
Lucas Vale Marciano de Oliveira.
My rst conversation with Lucas took place at the São Paulo
Golf Federation. Professional Joãozinho, asked that I watch
his student hit some balls. It was certainly not the rst time I
had seen someone hit balls from a wheelchair, but there
was something about Lucas that immediately I liked.
I was clear to see that both student and coach had big smiles
on their faces. Similar smiles can be seen at events for
golfers with a disability all around the World. The
atmosphere at such events is different, and I should know
having worked with players at every level of competition all
the way to the World's oldest major, The Open
Championship.
Lucas was born 35 years ago in Brasil's north-eastern part,
before moving to São Paulo where he was raised with four
brothers and a sister. Lucas had been dating Kelly, his soon
to be wife, for a couple of years when an unprovoked attack
by two men, left Lucas with eight bullets lodged in his back
and lying on the oor. Lucas had been merely doing his job as
a pizza delivery boy when in an instant, he became a
paraplegic.
Lucas had his faith tested to the limit. "At rst, I was
distraught, but I learned to deal with my disability. I did not
stop ghting for my dreams, I did not give up on winning."
Lucas had to learn how to live again, "everything was new, I
became a baby again and had to learn how to do everyday
things with a different body and learn how to use a
wheelchair."