By Mathieu Wood
The return of The G4D Open – featuring many of the world’s most talented golfers with disabilities – coincides with Mental Health Awareness Week.
This year, the week takes place from 12-18 May and the theme is ‘community’ – something that is forged within disability golf due to it becoming increasingly accessible and inclusive.
Now in its third edition, The G4D Open – an event staged in partnership with The R&A and the DP World Tour – sees 80 players compete over the Duchess Course at Woburn, with a plethora of inspirational stories of resilience and sporting talent on show.
Among those is that of Steven Alderson, who shot to worldwide prominence with his victory on the G4D Tour at the Estrella Damm N.A. Andalucía Masters last year.
With his victory in Spain, and subsequent emotional post-round victory speech in which he spoke about suffering years of bullying due to his autism, he became an overnight cult hero back home in Australia.
Countless media requests ensued for Alderson, affectionately known as ‘Spud’ because of his largely potato-based diet, and his caddie and friend, Trent Blucher, in the days and weeks that followed, as the pair juggled his new-found widespread acclaim and playing commitments.
Seven months on from speaking to the pair in the aftermath of Alderson becoming the first player with autism to win a G4D Tour event and subsequently claiming the Net title at the G4D Series Finale in Dubai, we caught up with them again ahead of Alderson's debut at The G4D Open.
Q. What is your advice to anyone who has a disability to help empower them to overcome it?
A: Steven - Follow your passion, whatever it may be, and the path it leads you on. When it comes specifically to bullying, it’s really hard to ignore it because it can hurt you. If you can try and ignore it and not let it upset you, just keep doing your passion and just throw it back in their face with what you're doing.
Q. When we last spoke, it was in the days after your history-making achievement in Spain. How have things been since?
A: Steven – Oh, pretty good. I drove over to Melbourne a few weeks ago and stopped in a hardware store and someone who lives in that area came up to me and just said ‘you’re that golfer that won in Spain’. That’s about 600kms away from where I live, just south of Adelaide, but it was quite funny. My home club Willunga Golf Club has been much better in knowing about mental health. We had an 11-year-old boy with autism playing here, and I used to run into him and his dad quite a lot and do a bit of putting with him. The other members are also very good, they don’t sit back and allow what would have been the norm 10-15 years ago.
A: Trent – Just to add, but, recently, Spud played against and beat someone and then returned as a guest to that home club a week or two later and had 26 points on a Monday and this fellow decided to jump on Facebook and quite severely bully Spud, saying ‘you're not famous, your tournaments don't count’ and all this sort of stuff. We spoke to the General Manager of that club and Spud spoke to the President of the Willunga Golf Club and the three of us had conversations and we called it out. I don't believe discipline or punishment is ever the right way. It's always, let's educate, let's raise standards of behaviour and I was really strong on that to both gentlemen. They were on board straight away. Within 48 hours, that gentleman had been spoken to by his captain, his general manager and stood in front of Spud and shook his hand and apologised. I spoke to Spud and said in all the years you've been bullied, have you ever had a bully shake your hand and apologise and look you in the eye? And he said no, and that's powerful.
Q. Trent, towards the end of last year, you highlighted your intent to launch Spud14, with Steven acting as an ambassador for autism. What is the concept, and how has it taken off?
A: Trent – It hasn’t opened up quite yet. It's a simple concept. How I explain Spud14, is that we've come up with this theme that if you have autism and I have autism and Spud has autism, we're all autistic, but we're all actually different. In the golf bag, we have 14 golf clubs, but they're all different. Even if you don't play golf, you know that's the case. I've created Spud14 because I wanted to come up with a theme that Spud was comfortable to own and could communicate quickly. If someone doesn't know anything about autism and they don't know anything about golf, I can talk to them and within 30 seconds I can explain what Spud14 is. They’ll now know something about autism and something about golf. They’ll either become curious or not. And if they already have a knowledge about either of those two, then it's really powerful. I'm really proud of Spud, he wants to be an ambassador for autism and speaking out against bullying and domestic violence. I'm really proud of him for just wanting to make that contribution. If we were sufficiently resourced and knew the journey was going to progress as far as it has, we should have had a crowdfunding up the day after Spain. We've just got to get something out there to the world and ask for some contributions. Golf costs money. It's accommodation and airfares and time and events are not in the same place every time. So, we can raise funds with integrity, and we can raise awareness at the same time. So that's the journey in front of us.
Q. On the G4D Tour, we haven’t seen you play since the ISPS HANDA All Abilities Australian Championship towards the end of last year. How do you feel your game is heading into what is one of disability golf’s biggest events?
A: Steven - I’ve played in a couple of All Abilities events over the last couple of months in Melbourne. I had a good first round in the first tournament but blew up on the second day and cost myself probably coming second, finishing fifth. Five weeks after that I returned to Melbourne and came runner-up. I had to birdie the hole to get into a play-off but unfortunately the guy who beat me drove it onto the green and made birdie as well. I birdied three of the last four holes, so I made him earn it. In January, I won a Webex Series event in Perth, one that is hosted by Min Woo and Minjee Lee.
A: Trent – As an aside, Trent was also named the Sportsperson of the Year on Australia Day in January, for being an inspiration to his local community. It’s been a big few months or so. It actually clashed with a Webex tournament but it is not every day you receive an Australia Day award so I thought it was pretty important for him to be there.
Q. This will be your debut at The G4D Open and your fourth start on the G4D Tour. What are you looking forward to most about this latest opportunity to play in an international event?
A: Steven - I’m looking forward to meeting some more players from the tour and making new friendships, hopefully. You never know, if you’re travelling overseas, you might be able to organise to stay with them and have a round of golf with them.
Q: What comes across whenever we speak and hear from you is that you’re competitive and have a desire to win. Being autistic, how much of a challenge is it to not let that impede you?
A: Steven - My plan is always to go out there to win. I’ve just got to concentrate a bit more on when I hit a bad shot to not let my brain fry up and go away and think about something else. If my mental game was 25% better, nobody would ever beat me!
Q: How have your family found the attention you have received?
A: Steven - They’re pretty happy. The last time I went out with my mum doing grocery shopping, a child came up to me so I had to get his mum and dad to come and speak to me before I could sign a packet of chips!
Q: Trent, it would be remiss not to highlight the role you have played in helping Steven realise some of his goals. Are you aware of just how much of an impact you’ve made?
A: Trent – Yes, I’m pretty proud of it. It was a great privilege that he invited me to join him in Spain. You’ve touched on the fact that he likes to win, I like trophies too. I have never had the ability to dominate in any sport and to be honest in the business world I have never had the desire to be number one. To be involved has been a great privilege and I became welded on when I came back from Spain. Spud’s phone was melting due to the viral nature, and he looked at me and said, ‘do you think I can be an ambassador for autism?’. I was a mate helping a mate up to that point. He could have said 'do you think I can have 10,000 AUD because I was wearing a Callaway cap?'. I have a very strong sense of community and as soon as he said that I knew I was here for the long haul. Spud wakes up every morning and wants to play golf and If I can contribute to that, whether it be at Willunga or Woburn, then that is my role.
Q: Is there anything else you’d like to mention that we haven’t raised?
A: Trent - The word gratitude hasn’t been spoken about yet in this chat, and it’d be terrible if that was the case. We are both just so grateful for the opportunities. This is a great adventure. Spud will turn 50 in five years or so and can play on the Seniors Tour here in Australia. The popularity, celebrity around Spud may end in a month or it might be a part of his life story for ten years but the gratitude for every aspect is massive.
A: Steven - I’m hoping that a lot of families who have someone with autism who are not far from Woburn can get there and come and meet me for one of the practice days or at the end of one of the tournament days. I’d be only too happy to have a chat with them, sign a golf ball or a hat.
A: Trent - Just guard your chips!
