Dale keeps on right course

By Sarah Schwager
A NARRE Warren South quadriplegic with a passion for golf has designed a special golf club and wheelchair to make manoeuvring the course easier for people with disabilities.
Dale Sheppard was 19 when he rode his pushbike into the back of a fourwheeldrive.
Mr Sheppard broke his neck in four places and is now confined to a wheelchair.
He said that before his accident he played for a major Australian basketball team.
After six months in hospital he said he missed golf more than basketball and when he tried to play golf again he couldn’t.
“I couldn’t hang on to the golf club. The accident affected my hand movement,” he said.
Mr Sheppard, 27, said that about six years later he started playing golf again at various golf courses and experimented with ways of holding onto the club.
“I stuffed the end of the club into my glove (used for pushing the wheelchair) but it would come out. I taped it to the glove but it started hurting my hand.”
He then decided to design a solid glove that attached onto each of the clubs.
“We then had problems … taking the wheelchair on the course. There are a lot of regulations on what can go onto the green and what can’t.”
He said he then spoke to Mobility Plus Wheelchairs, based in Coburg, and gave the company his concept for a wheelchair, which they built for him.
“It’s the only one. It used to be called The Gremlin because it’s green and looks pretty mean.”
Mr Sheppard runs a company called Access Solutions National, which develops products for people with disabilities, evaluates products and disability access, as well as professional development training and workplace assessment on services for people with disabilities.
Mr Sheppard said he wanted to see more done to help people in wheelchairs get on the golf course.
“I just want to see guys in wheelchairs playing golf again. This is not a moneymaking venture,” he said. “My main hope is that there will be a wheelchair golfing association for people to get together and play and also provide opportunities for people in wheelchairs, for example, so anyone in the community could go to the club and jump in a chair and play.”
This week is Spinal Cord Injury Awareness Week, which runs from 14 to 21 November and is a fundraising initiative of ParaQuad Victoria.