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Slattery orchestrates historic win in global golf tournament
Author: Daniel Bugan
Published: 07/08/2019

The Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences' world-beating golfer Prof Garrett Slattery once again exhibited his prowess by leading a rest-of-the-world team in a record-breaking victory over a very good North-American outfit in the fourth ISPS Handa Vision Cup.

The Vision Cup, which took place in June at the Portmarnock Links in Dublin, Ireland, is a biennial Ryder Cup-style tournament which pits the top 12 blind golfers from North America against the top 12 from the rest of the world.

The tournament started in 2013 as the Resmeyer Cup, but was subsequently renamed as the ISPS Handa Vision Cup. The first edition was held at the Green Island Golf Club in Columbus, Georgia, USA in 2013.

Slattery, a professor in Actuarial Science, not only captained the rest-of-the-world team, but he also won all three of his matches.

But it doesn't stop there. Slattery's team also managed to beat the North Americans by a whopping 15.5-8.5 – the largest winning margin in the history of the competition.

“On behalf of all of us, well done Garrett, and also to the rest of the team!" said Prof Paul Mostert, Chair: Department of Statistics and Actuarial Science.

This wasn't Slattery's first success on the international stage. In 2014, he won the B2 world title at the world championships of the International Blind Golf Association in Sydney, Australia.

The B2 sight category is for players who see less at 2 m than a fully-sighted person sees at 60 m.

  • Photo 1: The captain of the the rest-of-the-world team, Prof Garrett Slattery, with the North American team captain, Ms Linda Port, and the captain of the R&A*, Chris Hilton.
  • Photo 2: Prof Garrett Slattery and his guide, Mr Erich Kliem, holding the Vision Cup. (Both photos supplied.)
    *R&A (Royal & Ancient) is the international golf body who engages in and supports activities undertaken for the benefit of the sport of golf.