Golf & Bowls
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Introduction
Both Disabled Golf & Bowls are available to most individuals with Mobility Impairments in South Africa, including those in wheelchairs. The classification process is used to guarantee that no matter your disability, everyone can compete on an even footing. Both sports are played at social, club & Provincial level, as well as at International level.
Golf
Golf is a precision club and ball sport, in which competing players (or golfers) use many types of clubs to hit balls into a series of holes on a golf course using the fewest number of strokes. The game is played on golf courses, each of which features a unique design, although courses typically consist of either nine or 18 holes.
Disability golf classification is used to guarantee that no matter your disability, you can compete on an even footing. It is used for deaf golf, blind golf, amputee golf, golf for the mentally challenged, paraplegic golf and other forms of golf involving the disabled.
Disabled golf in South Africa is run by the South African Disabled Golf Association (SADGA)
South African Disabled Golf Association (SADGA)
This includes those with Intellectual Disabilities. South African Disabled Golf Association (SADGA) helps people regardless of your physical or sensory disability, to take part in golf, in doing so it also builds your character. Disability golf classification is used to guarantee that no matter your disability, you can compete on an even footing.
SADGA was incorporated as a Section 21 Company in July 2004.Through golf they pride themselves on being a unique community that produce strong & courageous persons that can effectively handle adversity and face any challenge that comes before them.
- Encourage every South African with a permanent disability to play golf.
- Promote golf as a viable form of rehabilitation and recreation for the disabled.
- Bring together able and disabled golfers to share their love for the game, in the spirit of friendship and competition.
- Create public awareness of challenges facing disabled golfers, and to highlight their achievements.
Bowls
Lawn bowls is a precision sport where disabled individuals can equally compete with their able-bodied rivals. The game calls for rolling round balls, which are referred to as lawn bowls, toward small white-colored ball target, which is referred to as Jack.
The sport is usually played on a surface called “Bowling Green” which is divided into parallel playing strips dubbed as rinks. The objective of the game is to enable one or more bowls of the team get nearer to the Jack than that of the opposing team’s.
Lawn bowls made its debut in the 1984 Paralympic Games, where competitors with vision and impairment and cerebral palsy participated. The sport was later scrapped in the 2000 edition of the Games.
All of the lawn bowls players are categorized based on their disability. The lawn bowls classification system has eight sections and there are certain requirements that should be satisfied to determine what type of wheelchair an athlete can use during competition.
International Bowls for the Disabled has its origins in the family of the International Paralympic Committee (IPC), one of the largest sporting organisations in the world and the peak international body governing sport for athletes with a disability.
Formerly a sport on the program of the Paralympic Games, bowls was excluded from this high profile world event in 1996.
Paralympic Games
Competitors with cerebral palsy classifications were allowed to compete at the Paralympics for the first time at the 1984 Summer Paralympics. Bowls has dropped at the 1992 Summer Paralympics, returning on 1996 Summer Paralympics, and dropped again in 2000 Summer Paralympics. Blind, wheelchair and amputee disability types were eligible to participate, with classification being run through the International Paralympic Committee, with classification being done based on wheelchair and blindness. The sport was not on the Paralympic program as of 1999.
Disability classification
Bowls classification is the classification system for lawn bowls where players with a disability are classified into different categories based on their disability type. Classifications exist for blind bowlers. Bowls was played at the Paralympics.
Bowls has rules that were designed specifically with people with disabilities in mind. Classifications for this sport are based on functional mobility.
History
The visual impairment classification was part of the 1994 Commonwealth Games. Several classes in this sport were included in the 2002 Commonwealth Games.
References
- http://www.sadga.co.za/
- http://www.bowlssa.co.za/index.php/international-tournaments-2015/217-international-bowls-for-the-disabled
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_classification_in_lawn_bowls
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disability_classification_in_golf
- http://www.topendsports.com/events/paralympics/sports/lawn-bowls.htm