By Kent Gray
World No.1 George Groves will take a two-stroke lead into the final round of the inaugural EDGA Dubai Finale which is being played alongside the DP World Tour Championship at Jumeirah Golf Estates.

The Englishman, who has had a medical condition since birth called Erb’s Palsy which caused paralysis to his left arm, fired an impressive five-over 77 in his opening round on Earth Friday.

The World Ranking for Golfers with Disability (WR4GD) No.1, fresh from winning the 2019 English Disability Open over the Gainsborough course at Stoke by Nayland, was two shots clear of countryman Mike Browne (79) in the eight-player field. American Christopher Biggins occupied solo third after an 80 on the same layout being used by the field for the European Tour’s Race to Dubai decider.

There were some impressive shot-making in the opening round of the European Disabled Golf Association (EDGA) administered championship, including the championship opening tee shot from Swede Joakim Bjorkman. Check it out:

Flushed! https://t.co/JxGVdCujFq

— Golf Digest ME (@GolfDigestME) November 22, 2019

Bjorkman, who has Achondroplasia, a bone growth disorder that causes disproportionate short stature, trails the field after eventually signing for a 91. And how about this shot from Browne, a former Royal Artillery Gunner who had 22 (unsuccessful!) limb salvage operations after badly breaking his leg in a training exercise:

It wasn’t anywhere else ?️@edgagolf #DPWTC pic.twitter.com/fhbiZdX8rO

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 22, 2019

While you mull over Browne’s 79 – have you ever shot that off the back tees at Earth, or any course for that matter – consider his explanation of his injury on the EDGA website: “I was training in a place called Longmore in the UK. All I did basically was break my leg. I was on a training exercise and my leg collapsed…if you could imagine a bamboo stick when you crush it from the bottom up, well it was like that with my leg when I landed. I just thought that was it, you know, I’ll be back in six weeks, not a drama, back in the job doing what I was doing.”

It turns out it was far worse. A bad infection, which specialists are unsure whether he picked up in hospital or from the metalwork in his leg, consumed all the muscles around his knee.

“They actually took the knee joint out and tried to fuse my Tibia plateau to my Fema. So they had to break my shinbone, and stretch it about seven centimetres.” Ouch.

After two years in an Ilazarov frame with 52 wires running through his leg and daily one-millimetre adjustments to stretch his shinbone, the amputee now calmly says, “In hindsight – luckily it didn’t work.”

The final round of the 36-hole event is scheduled for early Saturday ahead of ‘moving day’ at JGE.

The WR4GD is administered by the USGA and R&A.

EDGA’s @BrendanLawlor97 meets @RCabreraBello ahead of the EDGA Dubai Finale.pic.twitter.com/9QTd9xTnL6

— The European Tour (@EuropeanTour) November 21, 2019

The post Groves fires 77 on Earth, leads inaugural EDGA Dubai Finale by two appeared first on Golf Digest Middle East.