July 12, (THEWILL) — Millions of golf enthusiasts around the world are looking forward to next week, when the world’s finest golfers will gather at Royal Portrush in Northern Ireland for The Open Championship, golf’s oldest major. As anticipation for that tournament builds, another event, played far from the largest galleries and television audiences, quietly caught my attention this week.
Watching the US Adaptive Golf Open on television, I expected to be inspired by courage. Instead, I found myself reflecting on a very different question. Who, exactly, was handicapped?
That may seem an odd question. After all, the competitors have obvious physical, sensory, and intellectual impairments. Yet the more I watched, the more I realised that golf has a way of exposing truths that reach far beyond the fairways. The most significant handicaps, I began to suspect, are not the ones we can see. They are the ones we carry within ourselves.
About seven years ago, I had the privilege of playing golf with a gentleman whose left arm had been severely affected since birth. Like many people encountering him for the first time, I assumed he would really struggle. It seemed a reasonable conclusion. Golf demands coordination, balance and control, all of which appeared to be working against him. I could not have been more mistaken.
He remains one of the most accomplished golfers I have ever played with. That day, he played the course below par, producing the kind of round that most golfers only dream of. His golf impressed me. What fascinated me more was the way he approached every shot.
Before he addressed the ball, he seemed to play it in his mind first. He visualised the flight, imagined precisely where the ball would land, and committed himself completely before the club ever moved.
Sports psychologist Dr Bob Rotella has spent decades teaching that great golf is played as much between the ears as it is with the hands. Watching my playing partner that day, I began to understand exactly what he meant. Long before the club moved, the shot had already been played in his mind.
Watching him also made me realise how much work must have gone into reaching that standard. Every controlled swing, every carefully considered decision and every confident strike reflected years of practice, discipline and adaptation. Golf, I realised, cares little for our circumstances. It responds only to preparation, discipline, and a willingness to take responsibility for every shot.
That experience forced me to rethink the meaning of handicap. Some handicaps are immediately visible. Others remain hidden behind impressive résumés, prestigious titles and genuine achievement. Those, I suspect, are often the more dangerous ones.
More than 25 years ago, during my banking career, I worked with a senior colleague who had one of the sharpest minds I have ever encountered. His brilliance was unquestionable and almost every year brought him another promotion until he eventually became a General Manager. Most people assumed he was destined for even greater things.
Within a year, he had lost his job. His greatest handicap had nothing to do with intellect. It was his contempt for the people around him. He treated colleagues with open disdain. For years, his technical brilliance compensated for the deficiencies in his leadership. As long as success depended primarily on what he could personally deliver, the organisation tolerated behaviour that should probably never have been tolerated.
Leadership, however, changed the equation. The higher he rose, the less success depended on what he knew and the more it depended on how he inspired, encouraged and developed others. His intelligence earned him a promotion. His attitude towards people determined how long he remained there.
Franklin D. Roosevelt led the United States through the Great Depression and much of the Second World War while living with a severe physical disability. His physical condition never prevented him from becoming one of the twentieth century’s most consequential leaders.
History remembers his courage, judgement, and resilience far more readily than the disability he carried.
The contrast between these stories has stayed with me for years. One man carried an obvious physical limitation but developed extraordinary discipline, resilience and mental strength. Another possessed formidable intellectual gifts, yet was held back by his inability to respect the very people he was called to lead. One adapted. The other never did.
I have come to believe that leadership is tested less by the limitations we inherit than by the limitations we refuse to confront. Golf has no patience for self-deception; a scorecard neither flatters you nor consoles you, it simply tells the truth. Leadership has its own scorecard and it isn’t measured only in financial performance or organisational results. It is measured in trust, in relationships and in whether people are still willing to follow you. Sooner or later, our invisible handicaps reveal themselves.
The US Adaptive Open reminded me that we often misunderstand what it means to have a handicap. We assume it is something that limits what people can do. Increasingly, I believe the more dangerous handicaps are the ones that limit what people can become. Some people play golf with one fully functioning arm. Others attempt to lead, burdened by contempt for people, insecurity, or an unwillingness to learn. Only one of those handicaps is immediately visible.
The golfer I met years ago never allowed his physical limitation to become an excuse for an undisciplined mind. He accepted the reality of his circumstances, adapted to them, and devoted himself to mastering the gifts he still possessed. Perhaps that is a quiet lesson. Leadership demands the same of all of us. We don’t get to choose every circumstance we inherit. We do get to choose the character we bring to them.
In golf, as in leadership, excellence rarely belongs to those with the fewest limitations. It belongs to those who refuse to let their limitations excuse them from developing the gifts they still have.
•The author, Meka Niyi Olowola (FSPIN), is a sustainability and communications expert, business leader and avid golfer.
