Golf star Guy McQuitty competing after transplant surgery

Guy McQuitty will stand on the first tee of the regional qualifying competition for this year's staging of the world's most famous golfing tournament just ten months after receiving a new kidney.

His enforced time away from the game has also seen him have a stent inserted in his heart and a pacemaker fitted.

His medical problems saw Guy (45), who briefly led the Open in 1986, wonder if he would ever be able to swing a club again.

He said: "I didn't think I would get back to the level I was playing at because I was on a lot of medication.

"I have been there and done it all as a golfer. Having been at the top regionally, I was then at the bottom.

"The qualifying round for The Open will be my first tournament round of golf for five years. A lot of people are going up to watch me."

Guy will be among a 111-strong field at the Effingham course in Surrey in next Wednesday's (July 2) competition over 18 holes. It is expected the top 15 per cent will qualify for the pre-qualifying tournament.

This will see about 300 golfers battling it out for some 12 places as the fight intensifies for the right to line up alongside golf's greatest players at Royal Birkdale in Southport between July 17 and 20.

Guy dare not look that far ahead. Even standing at the opening hole of the Open's earliest stage will be a major achievement given his poor health four years ago.

He had to quit in 2004 after 11 years as the club professional at Littlehampton Golf Club because of health, business and family problems.

His kidneys had not been working properly since 1995. But doctors had always managed to keep them going even after five spells in hospital for acute renal failure.

They could do that no more after nine years of treatment, meaning he faced four hours of dialysis three times a week from November, 2004.

The first sessions were at Portsmouth and the rest at Bognor Regis War Memorial Hospital.

The dialysis caused a side effect of heart problems to make it necessary for the stent to go in during 2006 followed by a pacemaker the next year.

Two call-ups for a possible donor kidney proved to be false alarms. But the third proved positive. Guy, of Alfriston Close, was matched with a kidney donated by a dead woman of the same age.

A three-and-a-half hour operation at Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth last August was a complete success. He was out of hospital after five days.

The fight back began to the golfing standards he had displayed since he first played the game as a ten-year-old.

He had been a professional since he was 18 and had played the game in the USA, Spain and Portugal as well as picking up countless honours around south-east England.

His biggest moment of fame came in the first round of the 1986 Open when he led for a short time.

The tournament was eventually won by Greg Norman with Guy bowing out with scores of 95 and 87.

His return to this year's The Open has been made possible by occasional practice at the Avisford Park golf course in Walberton to resume his familiarity with the game he has loved all his life.

His entry into The Open has also been made possible because his fee was paid by The Bear pub in Nyetimber.

What do you think? Click here to send a letter or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news

Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news

Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click on the link below to add yourself to our readers' map.

MAP

What do you think? Click here to send a letter or leave a comment below.

Click here to go back to Chichester news

Click here to go back to Bognor Regis news

Click here to go back to Midhurst and Petworth news

To tell us where in the world you are reading this story click on the link below to add yourself to our readers' map.

MAP