The world’s greatest disabled golfer, Kipp Popert, has made his debut look on the DP World Tour, teeing up on the Austrian Alpine Open after the G4D (Golf For Disabled) Tour was positioned on maintain.
The Englishman, who has cerebral palsy, is a 15-time winner on the G4D Tour, profitable final 12 months’s G4D Tour Sequence Last at Membership de Golf Alcanada in Mallorca.
Popert has achieved some enormous milestones throughout his {golfing} profession, notably being the primary participant to qualify to play within the R&A’s Novice Championship at Royal Lytham and St Annes in 2022.
Since then, he has risen to No 1 within the World Rating for Golfers with Incapacity after profitable 4 G4D occasions in 2025.
This week, Popert joins a packed area of gamers in Kitzbuhel, together with hometown hero Sepp Straka and Englishmen James Morrison and Brandon Robinson-Thompson, with China’s Yanhan Zhou setting the early tempo after an eight-under 62 within the first spherical.
On a heat day within the Austrian Alps, Popert went three over par by his opening 9 holes. He made the flip, and fought exhausting, coupling two birdies with two bogeys, earlier than making a double-bogey, birdie and a bogey to finish his first spherical with a five-over-par 75.
Popert impressed along with his putter, first draining a long-range right-to-left swinging putt on the par-four twelfth gap to put up a birdie, earlier than rolling one other in from an identical distance on the sixteenth.
His final look on the G4D Tour got here in Might on the G4D Open at Celtic Manor Resort in Wales, the place he completed tied for seventh on the leaderboard as South Korean Simon Seungmin Lee claimed victory.
However in April, it was introduced that the G4D Tour, which hosts the world’s greatest golfers with disabilities at a collection of occasions all all over the world, was set to be postponed for the foreseeable future.
The DP World Tour introduced it would proceed to host the annual G4D Open and a G4D Ryder Cup match between Workforce Europe and Workforce USA later this 12 months.
Talking in regards to the information in Might, Popert stated to the BBC: “I took it quite hard to be honest. It’s my livelihood, it’s how I’ve earnt my money for the last five years.”
Poppert stated he was dissatisfied upon studying the G4D Tour was set to be indefinitely postponed
The DP World Tour stated in a press release that it will proceed to carry discussions with the European Disabled Golf Affiliation, the R&A and the Worldwide Golf Federation on a brand new schedule for the G4D Tour.
It added: “We are focusing on organising two major events that will provide the biggest platform for golfers with a disability. These are the annual G4D Open, run in partnership with the R&A, and a new G4D match at the 2027 Ryder Cup.
“We established the G4D Tour to develop participation and are happy with the truth that right now, the numbers of golfers with a incapacity taking part in our sport competitively has grown considerably. G4D is now getting into a brand new chapter with a wider vary of stakeholders creating occasions.
“We will continue discussions with EDGA [European Disabled Golf Association], the IGF [International Golf Federation] and the R&A on a new structure that builds on the momentum generated by the G4D Tour and one that can ultimately realise the ambition of golf entering the Paralympics.”
Popert hosted his personal disabled golf occasion, the Kipp Popert World Invitational, on the London Golf Membership in Kent earlier this month. The very best disabled golfers on the planet arrived to function within the occasion, with every participant being paid £3,000.
Popert hosted his personal event earlier this month in Kent that added: “Players at the highest level of any disabled sport should be being paid.
“They don’t seem to be going to purchase Ferraris, however it is going to preserve them within the sport, but in addition present visibility to youngsters and different individuals with disabilities.”
Watch all four rounds of the Austrian Alpine Open live on Sky Sports. First round coverage commences on Sky Sports Main Event and Sky Sports Golf from 12pm on Thursday. Get Sky Sports activities or stream golf with no contract
