Juan Postigo Arce, Pro Golfer, “If you gave me the chance to be born with two legs, I would take it”

Gulf News

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00:00Here we are, here we are Juan.

00:20Of course, if you gave me the chance to be born with two legs, I would take it.

00:26That's the reality again.

00:28But I have to say that I am very lucky to live the life I live.

00:34I have a great girlfriend, I have a great family, I have a lot of great friends.

00:40I'm playing golf full time, so there's some more challenges day by day.

00:46But the life I do live by sharing my experience, but by doing a lot of things related at this

00:52point with my disability, like to have two legs.

00:55But I have this, and my life is really a whole life.

01:00I do everything I want, and I just love the way I live.

01:07They didn't know it, because I'm 27 now, at that time the technology was not as nowadays.

01:14So actually when I was born, the doctor gave me to my mother, said to her, this is not

01:20good.

01:22Then the doctor took me again and saw that I had a disability.

01:25But the way they teach me in life was really good.

01:30They were brave.

01:31They tried to find solutions at the same time, they didn't want me to be that way all my

01:35life.

01:36Unfortunately, it has been like that.

01:37But their intention was to be able to walk with two legs, it was not possible.

01:43But they really taught me how to live with one.

01:45They really let me make my own mistakes.

01:48They didn't overprotect me.

01:50I think that was very brave of them.

01:51And the way they wanted to do it was through sport.

01:54I've been swimming for a long time, I love playing football, I was sailing for a long

01:58time also.

01:59They wanted to teach me life about sport, about how competitive you have to be to be

02:04able to make your own life.

02:07Because every day is quite a little competition for us.

02:13I was lucky to get into golf, because my grandfather started playing golf when I was 11, 12 years

02:19old.

02:20I started to play with him golf, and I really loved the sport.

02:23Before golf, I had the chance to practice with many others at a high level.

02:27And golf was the only one that you could really play against, and we could play together.

02:32The disability didn't count in that sport, so I think that really got on the game a lot

02:37for me.

02:38The first year, I was 36 handicapped, then I was down to 18 in one year, then to 9 in

02:42the next year, then to 4, and then to scratch.

02:45I started playing golf with my prosthetic on my right leg.

02:48At one point, I had to decide, due to some operations, that I couldn't use it again.

02:54But my swing was always quite natural.

02:57I learned by seeing.

02:59I think it was sub-natural.

03:00We have worked on, obviously, strengthening my body to be able to hit farther and to be

03:05more stable.

03:06But the mechanics in the swing, we don't really touch them a lot.

03:10But we are based on the ball flight, the sound of the ball, much more old school.

03:15Obviously, when I need to find some numbers, I use TrackMan, I use every single technology.

03:19But we try to be quite old school at every single situation.

03:23I really enjoy practicing, really love being around the golf course.

03:27I love doing this, and that's why I put so much effort on it.

03:31And I think that's why my level to now has been so fast and so good.

03:38I really feel that I have worked a lot to make G4D be on this stage.

03:43I've been involved with the European Disabled Golf Association from 10, 12 years ago, and

03:48we have worked a lot together.

03:50We have reached a level that now we can showcase that disabled players are really competitive.

03:56We play on tour venues every single week, and we score very well.

04:00We have our number one, which is Kip Popper.

04:03The level is so high, and I think the G4D Tour has to keep growing.

04:08That's the pathway we have to follow.

04:10We need to keep going, get more players into the game, and get the best players to be able

04:15to play these events.

04:18We have to differentiate sometimes between social golf and competitive golf, and we're

04:22talking about competition right here.

04:24We're talking about great golf players, but they have a disability.

04:28But first of all, they are golf players, and elite golf players.

04:31So we can't forget that sometimes, and sometimes we do.

04:34This way, you can see from back injuries to missed limbs.

04:39I mean, there's a lot of different things and big disadvantages in life, but the reality

04:44is that when we are out of the golf course, we don't see our disabilities so big as we

04:50see them outside.

04:52I think we feel free, and we feel complete on the golf course.

04:59Short term, for this season, I didn't have any wound last year, so I want to change that.

05:05I hope I can do that tomorrow.

05:07And I would like to win the Order of Merit for this year.

05:12I won't play next event, which is in Singapore, because I want to rest a little bit.

05:16But the rest of the events, I will be ready to make a few good results.

05:21And long term, basically, is get to the Paralympics.

05:24I think to any athlete, the biggest dream is to represent their country on the Paralympics.

05:31And that's where I think I could end my career.

05:35I need to get there to be able to say, I'm finished.

05:39So that will be my biggest dream long term.

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