INSIDE THE ROPES
Digging
DEEP
Justin Walters is putting his life lessons to good use as he rebuilds his golfing career
BY MICHAEL VLISMAS
It was on the driving range at the Dubai Desert Classic in January 2023 that Justin Walters couldn’t see where he was hitting – because of the tears streaming down his face. In a game often said to be like life, it was in fact life that had suddenly hit Walters like a 1-iron in the face.
The night before, the 44-year-old Walters had received a phone call from his wife saying she wanted to end their marriage. But a tee time waits for no man, and Walters had to pick himself up the next day and tee off the weather-suspended final round alongside Tyrrell Hatton.
‘I just kept thinking, “Don’t make a fool of yourself, Justin,”’ he says as he tried to compose himself for a round of golf that meant nothing in the greater context of his life and that of his two children. Yet he still managed to shoot a round of 67.
The phone call had come on the back of Walters’ second-most successful season on the DP World Tour in 2022, where he finished 72nd on the Race to Dubai. Much like golf, just when Walters thought everything was fine, suddenly it wasn’t.
‘I have unfinished business. If I ever leave the game, I want to leave on my terms. I think I have the talent to do great things again’
QUICK Q&A
The biggest lesson you’ve learned through all of this?
Golf is designed to beat you up and push your buttons, and when you reach that point of giving in to it, it’s hard to be effective and play to your level. Playing golf with regret is not a good place to be. I’m trying to look myself in the mirror and not have any regrets.
Why have you always felt a kinship with rhinos, resulting in your founding of Birdies 4 Rhinos?
I’m blind in my right eye, and a rhino’s vision isn’t good either. Rhinos have their challenges, and I have mine. As successful as Birdies4Rhinos is, I actually hope there comes a day where we don’t need it any more, because that would mean rhinos can just exist and not have to fight for survival.
‘I sensed something was wrong. I tried everything to save my marriage, but there was no coming back for her because she had already made the decision to leave me.
‘I started blaming the game and myself for what had happened. Being away is hard on the people around you. It takes a strong person to stand by you when you’re not there all the time. I blamed myself and fell out of love with the game. I nearly retired,’ says Walters.
That phone call, and the ensuing months of dealing with lawyers while trying to retain a card on the DP World Tour, eventually took its toll.
‘In October 2023, I had dinner with New Zealand professional Ryan Fox, and he asked me how I was. I just burst into tears. Ryan convinced me to go and speak to somebody, which I did. If it wasn’t for Ryan, I would be in a worse place for sure.’
So Walters took a step away from golf to, as he says, rebuild his game and his life.
'When, despite everything, you do manage to perform, you often overlook or suppress the deeper issues’
‘Mental health is such a hidden assassin. When you find out there’s a problem, it’s a little too late. It operates on a deeper, more unsuspecting level. I didn’t fully appreciate the extent of emotional damage I went through and the lingering effect it had.
‘You face the pressures of performing and playing well, and when, despite everything, you do manage to perform, you often overlook or suppress the deeper issues.’
It's been a long journey back for Walters as he’s started again on the HotelPlanner Tour. He’s busy rebuilding his game, more mentally than technically. But it’s often the smallest – and not the most obvious – things he still needs to work hard to overcome at tournaments.
‘The time off was good, but when I went back to tournaments, I couldn’t see someone else’s wife or family in the player’s lounge because it would bring it all back for me. Tournaments were a tough place to be.
‘I’d also lost the wonderful gift of being present. I needed to rebuild my swing, but on a deeper level, I needed to find a way to be present and forgive golf and myself for what had happened.’
GOLF WITH A CAUSE
Justin Walters shares the background behind the Birdies 4 Rhinos initiative and its progress.
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Gallery below
When Walters successfully qualified for The Open Championship this year, his first since 2014, the emotion that poured out of him told the story of the pain only he knew about at the time.
‘I felt like I was able to express myself in the game for the first time in a long time. I felt so comfortable at The Open, even if it didn’t go as well as I hoped. When I had those three months off, what I missed the most was playing at those big tournaments. Playing at my national Open or Leopard Creek, or the Alfred Dunhill Links Championship. I wanted to experience that again.’
In August this year, on a Thursday night in Denmark, Walters received another phone call. ‘I was playing the Danish Golf Championship. I shot 73 in the first round, but I didn’t feel I’d played badly. My son phoned and asked me how I played. I said I did good. And he said, “Dad, you’re a legend. You go and show them you’re a legend.” That meant so much to me. I’d just missed six cuts in a row, but my son still thought I was a legend.’
And that’s what Walters is chasing. The belief that there is still something legendary to be done in his career.
‘I want to get back to the main Tour. I have unfinished business. If I ever leave the game, I want to leave on my terms. I think I have the talent to do great things again. It’s still there, inside me.’
STUART FRANKLIN/ALEX BURSTOW/R&A/R&A VIA GETTY IMAGES/TYRONE WINFIELD/CARL FOURIE/SUNSHINE TOUR
