Local golfer Matt Durham said it was his cousin Stephen Dobson who introduced him to the sport when he was 13 years old.
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Matt left school at an early age entered the Tenterfield Junior Classic. He went on to win his age event.
“His passion was golf,” Mentor Patricia Barry said.
“He was a natural.”
Before long, Matt was playing off a handicap and impressing local golfers and coaches with his seeming natural talents for the game.
“He had a magnificent swing,” Patricia said.
It was a fitting first match, with the young golfer going on to win the Tewantin Noosa Classic and be named player of the year in the Caloundra champion junior pennant squad. And be trained by some of the most influential golfing coaches in the country.
At the height of his game, and 16 years old, Matt was playing off a handicap of two and was astounding fellow players on the Sunshine Coast are where lived.
In late 2011, Matt was three up and just past the fourth tee-off in the A-grade semi-final at the Caloundra Golf Club when he collapsed.
The promising young golfer was airlifted from Nambour Hospital to the Royal Brisbane where doctors determined he had burst a blood vessel in his head and suffered a massive stroke.
Doctors operated twice to relieve pressure on his skull and after intensive rehabilitation and three years Matt is back on the fairways.
“I’ve always loved golf,” Matt said on the local course last week.
Matt lost the use of the left side of his body. To return to the course, he had to learn to play with only his right arm, using left handed clubs.
In spite of the challenges he has faced, the young golfer returned to the course in a great show of determination, under the mentoring of nationally renowned golfer and coach Charlie Earp.
It wasn’t long before he was astounding his golfing mates again.
Patricia recalled Matt contacting her not long after he took up the clubs again.
“He was about four inches from a hole in one,” she said.
Currently living in Tenterfield and playing regularly at the local club, Matt said he has no worries about making it to competitive glory.
The easy-going sportsman said he would like to get back to his competitive edge, but said he enjoyed playing socially around the local traps.