Performance Programme
Our Purpose
The England Deaf Golf Performance programme exists to:
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Identify talented deaf golfers
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Develop players to international standard
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Prepare athletes to represent England and Great Britain
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Create a clear pathway to major championships
Our players compete in:
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Deaflympics (ICSD)
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World Championships (WDGF)
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European Championships (EDSO)
We are building not just golfers, but ambassadors for deaf sport.
Preparing for the World Championships 2026
We’ve successfully wrapped up another performance camp, gearing up some of the England squad and development players for the upcoming Sweden 2026 and future events. A special thanks to Craig Thomas and the Castle Golf Club, Stafford for their invaluable technical support. We're excited to announce that opportunities for sponsorship will soon available, so please reach out if you’d like more information.
Our next camps:
21st March 2026 - Men's squad
2nd May 2026 - Women's squad
13th June 2026 - Senior Men's squad
Qualifying for future International Competitions
While we use a wide range of tools and data to identify new talent and prepare them for international competition. We also expect players on the performance programme to enter stipulated events for evaluation and monitoring purposes.
We also provide opportunities for existing and new players to automatically qualify for a place on the England squad on merit by competing in the England Deaf Golf Open.
To automatically qualify for the 2026 World championships the category winners (top 3 places) of the EDG Open 2025 were:
Men - Aiden Boland, Matthew Bradshaw and Chris Flynn
Senior Men - Bela Hegedus, John Shanks and Brian Robinson
All other squad places have been allocated based on past performances, including the Women's squad.
To automatically qualify for the 2027 European Championships, players will be competing in the EDG Open at Worsley Park GC, Manchester on 24 -26 July.
The rest of the squad will be selected form players who compete in this tournament and/or the 2025 EDG Open.
Automatic qualification into the England squad for the 2028 World Championships will be contested at the EDG Open 2027 and the rest of the squad will be selected from players who have entered the 2026 or 2027 EDG Opens.
Qualifying for the Deaflympic Games - Athens 2029
Player selections for the Deaflympics games are co-ordinated by GB Deaf Golf and UK Deaf Sport who select and approve golfers to be given the honour of becoming a Deaflympian and joining DeaflympicsGB.
The selection processes for Athens 2029 have yet to be finalised and we will publish more information here when it becomes available.
The Deaflympic squad is drawn from players who have a UK passport and meet the ICSD eligibility criteria of a 55dB hearing loss in the better ear. By meeting these criteria, athletes are given a unique ICSD number which remains with them for life, even if they compete internationally in other deaf sports.
The Deaflympic tournament is also open to professional golfers providing that they meet the eligibility criteria and the GB selection processes.