Australian Cameron Pollard made his G4D Tour debut in December at the Australian All Abilities Championship @ the ISPS Handa Australian Open, where he finished in eighth place, ahead of our own Tommaso Perrino.
Cameron Pollard, results
Challenges have always been part of his life: suffering from autism spectrum disorders, knee problems that forced him to undergo surgery during his adolescence, finally a pathology that required the removal of a part of his intestine.
But Cameron, with the help of mother Kate, was able to overcome all this with a smile.
He tells Kate that anything that doesn’t fit into the house-golf course routine can cause panic attacks in Cameron. “Even not finding the brand of his favorite drink causes him anguish… if he doesn’t have to go to golf, he prefers to stay at home”.
In 2016 Cameron made the Australian team at the Special Olympics Golf Masters in Macau, his first competition overseas.
Getting on a plane wasn’t easy for him, Kate says but it was a turning point. “Yeah, I did it,” Cameron adds with a smile.
Cameron started playing golf as a child: his grandmother Jennifer gave him plastic sticks and his father Scott began to take him with him to the club. The lack of any social filter created many problems for Cameron.
His mentor Brendan Barnes recounts: “Cameron would play and just say whatever came to mind, like ‘You play awful’ and stuff like that. Well, many were really hurt, to say the least.”
He adds Kate: ‘We never let him play with other people, to avoid embarrassing situations, so for a long time he only played with his father. Then slowly, the partners understood Cameron and everything was simpler.”
The form of autism that confines Cameron to her bedroom or a golf course has demonstrated something of a competitive edge.
His repetition of the same routine does not make him feel the pressure of the competition. Says his mentor Brendan: “Cameron sees golf simply as golf. His mental process is the same: go out, make 18 holes and try to hole out with as few strokes as possible ”. Playing the match in his club or playing the G4D Tour is the same thing for him.
“Golf has been a godsend for Cameron, he has had so many challenges.” says Kate “His passion for the game gave him the strength to overcome everything, to make progress in many fields, even in everyday life. We parents were very worried: what would he do after school? What would his life have been like? Where would it end up? Now we don’t think about it anymore. We know there’s a place for him, and it’s golf that created him.”
Cameron Pollard currently ranks 11th on the newly formed G4D Tour Players’ Order of Merit.
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