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When you are brought into this world and carried more than 50 miles on your father’s back in search of medical help needed to save your life, where will you discover hope?
That quest for hope was also undertaken by Alex Fourie, an orphan boy in Ukraine born without a right arm. Golf has proved an invaluable centerpiece to Fourie, who helps demonstrate the game’s rich capacity for inclusion and enrichment.
Alex Fourie
For Alex Fourie and others who are missing limbs, “every day is a bit of a juggle.” Consider brushing your teeth when, like Fourie, you only have one arm.
“People don’t think of that as a challenge,” he said with a laugh. “But just putting toothpaste on your toothbrush isn’t such a routine thing.”
That segues into Fourie’s passion for golf, which mirrors that of many others with disabilities. “Because there are reminders every day of our disabilities, we use golf to achieve independence,” he said. “It gives us a sense of pride.”
If Fourie is able to draw attention to a world of golf too often overlooked – he competes in North American One-Armed Golfer Association (NAOAGA) events and has played in the first two U.S. Adaptive Open Championships at Pinehurst Resort – that is a wonderful thing. But widening the lens, Fourie represents courage.
Born in 1992 near Chernobyl six years after the world’s most horrific nuclear disaster, Fourie was a victim of the radiation that had seeped into rivers and spread poison. Fourie was born with a cleft lip and palate and without a right arm. For years he was shuttled between orphanages until he received his first break in life: he was adopted at age 7 by South African missionaries who lived in Alabama,
Reverend Anton Fourie and his wife, Elizabeth Fourie, played youth soccer and was a placekicker in football, but it was golf that truly caught his fancy. Now, at age 30, Fourie has an established presence in the game.
“All of us coming together, especially at such a polarizing time, it was so beautiful,” he said of competing in the inaugural U.S. Adaptive Open in July 2022.
There is even more to admire about Fourie when you consider that he spent a year in Knoxville, Tenn., as a roofer. A demanding job with two good arms, imagine the obstacles for Fourie.
A torn meniscus suffered in a fall hastened his decision to focus on his true love. He’s now a golf instructor in Birmingham, Ala., who conducts as many clinics for disabled golfers as he can – and raises money for the children of Ukraine through an organization called Hope Now Ministries.
“It is senseless,” said Fourie of the insidious war. Fourie used the spring to work on his game, and it paid dividends, as he returned to Pinehurst in July and improved on his 2022 Adaptive Open performance by 19 strokes, placing 39th among the 75 male competitors in the 54-hole event.
“My whole team is pushing me, wanting to use my story to help grow golf for the adaptive community,” said Fourie. “It is such a huge privilege.”