When he was walking down the first fairway at St Andrews, chatting with Tom Watson, Paul Lawrie and Stewart Cink as the crowds applauded from the grandstands, Kipp Popert could have been forgiven for thinking back to all those summer holidays that he spent in hospital having operations on his legs and feet, or at home convalescing in bed. But Kipp is simply not that type of person.
Born with a form of cerebral palsy called spastic diplegia that means the muscles in his legs and feet are contracted, Kipp has come through numerous surgeries and enforced absences from the game to become one of the world’s best golfers with a disability.
In 2021, he rose to number one in the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD) after winning the Hero Open, where he shot a closing 66 at Fairmont St Andrews. This year he won the Betfred British Masters – the inaugural G4D Tour event organised by the European Disabled Golf Association and the DP World Tour – along with further victories at the Porsche European Open and BMW PGA at Wentworth.
During the summer, he also became the first ever golfer with a disability to qualify for the Amateur Championship, narrowly failed to qualify for the US Amateur Championship and won his category at the inaugural US Adaptive Open at Pinehurst,
