BRADENTON, FLORIDA (DECEMBER 4, 2023) – The World Champions Cup and ISPS Handa today announced that the ISPS Handa All-Abilities Competition at the World Champions Cup will be contested during the inaugural tournament December 7-8 at The Concession Golf Club in Bradenton, Florida. As a Founding Official Partner of the World Champions Cup, ISPS Handa is continuing its mission to further the transformative power of sport across the globe.
ISPS Handa funds and promotes blind and disabled golf with the belief that sport has a unique ability to create hope, to break down educational and cultural barriers and to inspire people in a way that can unite communities around the world.
“We are excited to be part of this terrific new tournament and to showcase some amazing golfers during the ISPS Handa All-Abilities Competition at the World Champions Cup,” said Dr. Haruhisa Handa, Founder and Chairman of the International Sports Promotion Society (ISPS Handa). “All abilities golfers are breaking new ground. It is wonderful to see incredible athletes of all abilities performing on stage together, as an inspiration for all. This is the power sport: fully inclusive and life without limits.”
The 27-hole ISPS Handa All-Abilities Competition at the World Champions Cup will be contested over two days – Thursday, December 7 and Friday, December 8. Rounds 1 and 2 will take place Thursday, with the third and final nine-hole round on Friday. Mirroring the World Champions Cup format and inspired by the passion and tradition of the Ryder Cup and Presidents Cup, the ISPS Handa All-Abilities Competition will feature Team International, Team Europe and Team USA squaring off as the teams battle for international pride and global bragging rights.
The following nine players were selected based on their World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD) standing as of October 20 (ranking in parentheses):
Team International
Kurtis Barkley (5) - Canada
- Barkley, born with a curvature of the spine, was one of eight golfers with a disability who qualified to play in two EDGA tournaments, on the same courses and on the same days as DP World Tour events in 2021.
Lachlan Wood (15) - Australia
- At the age of15, Wood was sitting in the passenger seat of a car when it crashed into a pole at high speed and rolled over several times. The Australian sustained 12 broken bones in his left leg, many of the bones shattered. He underwent more than 30 operations and spent a year in a wheelchair and another on crutches. Two of his back muscles were removed and grafted onto his leg. He had to learn how to walk again on a leg that was four centimeters shorter than his right, and now a quarter of the size. He doubted if he’d ever play golf again.
Chris Willis (20) - Canada
- Willis was born with numerous birth defects that affect his hearing, vertebrae, leg length discrepancy, hands (thumbs), esophagus and more. In 1985, at the age of 4, he had surgery on his left hand to make his index finger into a thumb because his thumb was small, oddly shaped and immobile. His right thumb also is oddly shaped but he can move it, so no surgery was necessary. Despite his birth defects he has competed in two Canadian Amateur Championships and several Canadian Mid-Am Championships, Ontario and Canadian All-Abilities Championships, the G4D Open and a U.S. Adaptive Open. He has been a special education learning disabilities teacher for 16 years with the Toronto District School Board.
Team Europe
Brendan Lawlor (2) - Ireland
- Lawlor was born with rare bone disorder Ellis-Van Creveld Syndrome, characterized by a shorter stature and shorter limbs.
Juan Postigo (4) - Spain
- Postigo was born without much of his right leg and no knee, but since starting to play golf at age 12 has gone on to become ranked as high as World Number Three in the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability.
Tommaso Perrino (6) - Italy
- Perrino suffered a scooter accident, limiting the functionality of one leg, when he was 17 in 2001 but he has since gone on to become one of EDGA’s leading players, currently ranked sixth in the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability.
Team USA
Jack Bonifant (17) - Kensington, Maryland
- Bonifant, now 33, suffered a fractured skull at six weeks old that required nine hours of surgery and 10 years of rehabilitation and caused him to lose feeling on the entire left side of his body. Bonifant found inspiration from Jim Abbott, who was born without a right hand and pitched for 10 seasons in Major League Baseball. Bonifant earned a first-alternate spot in the 2021 U.S. Amateur Four-Ball Championship with partner Taso Scilaris.
Luke Carroll (25) - Old Hickory, Tennessee
- Carroll will graduate high school in 2024. At age 10, he was diagnosed with transverse myelitis, a neurological disorder of the spinal cord. His great-grandfather, George Stinchcomb, was a golf instructor with Cleveland Metro Parks who shagged balls for Ben Hogan and also made custom golf clubs.
Kenny Bontz (33) - Parrish, Florida
- Bontz was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at age 11, and with Ewing sarcoma in his leg at 19 years old. Bontz underwent six knee replacements in nine years, leading him to choose amputation to get his life back after many years of opioid and alcohol addiction. He is a member of the EDGA (formerly the European Disabled Golf Association).
The teams will play three nine-hole singles matches, using the same points format as the World Champions Cup. A total of three points will be awarded on each hole based on each player's individual result. The player with the lowest score on each hole will receive two points. The player with the second lowest score on a hole will receive one point. The player with the highest score will receive no points. Whenever players finish with the same score on a hole, they will be awarded the same number of points. If two players finish with the lowest score on a hole, each will receive one and a half points. The third player, finishing with the highest score, will receive no points. If all three players finish with the same score on a hole, each will receive one point.
If two or three teams are tied with the same amount of total points at the conclusion of play on Friday, a single individual will compete in a sudden death playoff to determine the winner.
The World Champions Cup is set to make its debut December 7-10, 2023, at The Concession Golf Club. Tickets are now on sale at www.WorldChampionsCup.com. Champions Passes, which allow access to the grounds and the grandstand, start at $45 per day. Kids 15 and under receive complimentary admission with a ticketed adult (up to four kids per ticketed adult). While supplies last, the tournament is offering a Black Friday “Buy One, Get One” special on all Champions Passes.
Each of the three teams competing in the World Champions Cup consists of six players, including a playing captain, and all are active PGA TOUR Champions members. World Golf Hall of Famer Ernie Els, 2011 Open champion Darren Clarke and 2003 U.S. Open champion Jim Furyk will each serve as playing captains in the first playing of the World Champions Cup. Jacobsen, a seven-time PGA TOUR winner and popular golf commentator, is the Chairman of the event.
Team International includes Els, Vijay Singh, Retief Goosen, Steven Alker, Stephen Ames, K.J. Choi and Vice Captain Stuart Appleby. Team Europe’s roster features Clarke, Bernhard Langer, Colin Montgomerie, Miguel Angel Jiménez, Robert Karlsson, Alex Čejka and Vice Captain Jesper Parnevik. Team USA consists of Furyk, Steve Stricker, David Toms, Jerry Kelly, Justin Leonard, Brett Quigley and Vice Captain Billy Andrade.
The World Champions Cup is officially sanctioned by PGA TOUR Champions and is set to air on ABC and ESPN. The World Champions Cup is an annual three-team, three-day competition that will be contested across nine-hole matches featuring team formats and singles play, with points being earned for each hole won in each of the event’s 24 matches. The team with the highest point total across all matches will be crowned the champion.
The Concession Golf Club was named the Best New Private Course in America by Golf Digest in 2006. The seed of what would become The Concession Golf Club was planted in 1969, with Jack Nicklaus’ famous gesture of conceding the final putt in the Ryder Cup to Tony Jacklin, clinching the first tie in the competition’s history. Decades later, the two golf legends paired up to design and create The Concession Golf Club — a championship, privately-owned golf facility with no houses lining the course. The course has hosted the PGA TOUR’s 2021 World Golf Championships-Workday Championship at The Concession, the 2015 Men’s and Women’s NCAA Division I championships and the biennial Concession Cup.
Additional information about the World Champions Cup is available at www.WorldChampionsCup.com, on Twitter (@WorldChampsCup) and on Instagram (@WorldChampionsCup).
About ISPS Handa
Dr Haruhisa Handa is the Founder and Chairman of the International Sports Promotion Society (ISPS Handa). A Japanese philanthropist, he has founded numerous charitable organisations both in Japan and internationally. He believes that sport has the power to inspire, transform, and unite people and communities across social, racial and socio-economic barriers. He has been passionately supporting blind golf in this aim for almost 30 years.
About Intersport
Intersport is an award-winning agency and leader in the creation of ideas, content and experiences that attract and engage passionate audiences. Its industry-leading team offers expert insights in content marketing, customer engagement, experiential marketing, hospitality, production and sponsorship consulting. The Chicago-based agency also owns and operates events across the professional and collegiate sports landscape, including basketball, football, golf, pickleball and volleyball. In addition to launching and operating the PGA TOUR’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, Intersport is the proud operator of other world-class, ground-breaking golf properties such as The Jackson T. Stephens Cup, THE JOHN SHIPPEN National Golf Invitational and the World Champions Cup. Intersport has been headquartered in Chicago since its inception in 1985, with additional offices in Boston, Detroit and New York. Learn more at www.intersport.global and on social media (LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook).
About PGA TOUR Champions
PGA TOUR Champions is a membership organization of professional golfers age 50 and older, including 35 members of the World Golf Hall of Fame. The Tour’s mission is to provide financial opportunities for its players, entertain and inspire its fans, deliver substantial value to its partners, create outlets for volunteers to give back and generate significant charitable and economic impact in tournament communities. Follow PGA TOUR Champions online at PGATOUR.com, on Facebook, on Twitter (@ChampionsTour), on Instagram (@pgatourchampions) and on TikTok (pgatourchampions).
All events are televised in the United States on Golf Channel, the exclusive cable-television partner of PGA TOUR Champions. Internationally, PGA TOUR Champions coverage is available in more than 170 countries and territories via 22 media partners.
Media contact:
Greg Ball, BZA Public Relations on behalf of World Champions Cup
760-271-9183 / gregb@bzapr.com