Perske overcomes pain to rebuild his golf career | Inside Golf. Australia’s Most-Read Golf Magazine as named by Australian Golfers

By Peter Owen

WHEN the pain was at its worst Wayne Perske feared he would never walk again. Playing golf, said his doctor, was simply out of the question.

That was two years ago, after his fourth spinal fusion operation to correct a curvature of the spine that had plagued him since birth.

But Perske, a popular professional who played for years on the Japan Tour and won the 2006 Token Homemate Cup, is made of tough stuff.

Confined to bed and in great pain, he could nevertheless feel some strength returning. One day, he risked getting up and found he could take a step or two.

The next day he walked a little further. “My first goal was to walk to the letterbox, then to the lamp post. After a couple of weeks I was able to walk a kilometre and it was time to go back to work.”

Perske was born with scoliosis, a condition in which a person’s spine has an abnormal curve, which can worsen with age, impact a person’s life, and be considered a disability.

Listening to Perske describe his ailment, and the steps doctors have taken to correct it, is a confronting experience.

“Bulging discs, ruptured discs, bone-on-bone, bits of disc floating in the spinal column, nitrogen bubbles – it got to the point where I would twist and I could hear it,” Perske said.

“Then I started to have a drop-foot. I was falling over because I couldn’t lift my leg properly. They had to relieve the nerve pain by doing a fusion, but where they fused wasn’t actually where the pain was coming from. 

“They had to go in again, but from the front because it was quite low. They cut me from the belly button down to my groin. They take your guts out, slap it on a thing beside you and they drill into your spine from the front.

“When I came out of that surgery, not only did I have to recover from the trauma of surgery from the front, but the back pain was worse.”

Wayne Perske the All Abilities winner at the Webex Players Series Murray River at Cobram Barooga Golf Club.

Perske went under the knife for a third time to have four rails inserted that stretch from the base of his spine to halfway up his back, held together by eight screws.

While the multiple surgeries were taking place, Perske continued to work, He was appointed head professional and manager of the new Maleny Golf Club in the Sunshine Coast hinterland, north of Brisbane.

Then he got a job as a coach at the Sunshine Coast Golf Centre, and later as head professional and manager at the Hendra centre of Golf 24, an indoor golf simulation facility with Trackman technology and on-site professional coaching.

Though he was coaching, Perske wasn’t playing golf – certainly to nothing like the standard he once reached. And he missed it.

“I started hitting a few balls and found I was actually enjoying it,” he said. “I watched what players like Lachie Wood were doing in All Abilities golf and I wondered whether that was something I could work towards.”

He contacted Golf Australia, and went through an extensive physical assessment with National Eligibility Assessor Sam Taylor. “It was tough,” Perske said. “There were moments when I didn’t think I was going to qualify.”

In the end, he satisfied the impairment criteria set by the International Golf Federation, and lined up in mid-January for his first All Abilities tournament at the Webex Players Series Murray River hosted by Cobram Barooga Golf Club.

He shot rounds of 80 and 71 to score a seven-stroke victory over Cameron Pollard, and followed that up with runner-up finishes (both times to Pollard) at Rosebud and in the Victoria Open at 13th Beach.

He says he thought he would have done better given his history, but accepts that he can no longer play to that standard, and realises he needs to adapt his game to suit his physical limitations.

“The timing is still there but I need to work on my short game,” he said. 

Perske’s goal is to play in the big events in Europe and the United States, and knows he has to accumulate enough points to be ranked amongst the world’s top handful of All Abilities golfers.

“After my first two events I was ranked 77th in the world, so now I have a better idea of what I have to do,” he said. “I have to improve and I have to play a lot.”

The rails and screws that hold Perske’s back together.

He said he was tired and sore after each event, his backswing became shorter and he needed additional pain medication, but he acknowledged that it was the same for the other players.

Perske is full of praise for his fellow competitors in All Abilities golf. “They’re great golfers and I enjoy the camaraderie,” he said. “Cameron Pollard is an outstanding player. In the final round of the Victoria Open he drove the ball as well as anyone I’ve ever seen.

“And you’re genuinely happy when an opponent gets a birdie – that doesn’t happen on the main tour. We’ve formed a Facebook group and we share tips about travelling and saving money,” he said.

Perske said he’s luckier than some of the other players because he has sponsorship support from several businesses, including the Wellness Group and CRE Insurance. And because the All Abilities events are played only at weekends, he’s able to work fulltime.

He has signed on as the touring professional at the Gunabul Homestead, near Gympie, which caters specifically for All Abilities golfers.

Accompanying Perske on his return to tournament golf was his wife Vanessa, who juggled duties as both his caddie and carer. “He’s got this little burning passion deep down,” Vanessa said. “It’s nice for him to have that spark back. He’s got that little twinkle in his eye again. It’s fun.”

NOTE: The historic Gunabal Homestead, Gympie, offering accommodation and an 18-hole par 3 course great for experienced and beginning golfers and for all abilities and Wellness Australia Group, a disability services and support organisation in Woolloongabba, Queensland, are both supporters and sponsors of Wayne Perske. 

For more on both organisations, see page 20 and 22 of March edition of Inside Golf.