Alex FourieBy Rubin E. Grant
Alex Fourie has a simple goal in mind, and that’s what led the PGA golf instructor to form a partnership with Highland Park Golf Course.
“We’re looking forward to growing the game of adaptive golf in Alabama and in Birmingham in particular,” Fourie said.
Highland Park, Alabama’s top municipal course, and Fourie, the No. 1 one-armed adaptive golfer in the world and a certified PGA golf instructor, announced the partnership on May 31.
As part of the agreement, Highland Park will be Fourie’s home course and the course logo will appear on his competitive apparel and golf bag. Fourie will assist the Highland Park junior programs and help Highland Park instructors teach the course’s monthly disabled veterans clinic. Fourie also will make regular social media posts from or about Highland Park Golf Course.
“I’m excited about it,” Fourie said. “I love Highland. It’s a dream come true, a culmination of a lot of hard work, dreaming, planning and executing, too. It gives me an opportunity to give people a chance to not see their limitations.”
Highland Park Golf Course is the state’s oldest public course and has been named to GOLF Magazine’s list of the “30 Best Municipal Golf Courses in America.” The course property is owned by the city of Birmingham, while Highland Park Golf LLC and it’s managing partner, Bob Barrett, own the long-term lease. The operation is managed by Troon.
Troon, headquartered in Scottsdale, Arizona, is the world’s largest golf and golf-related hospitality management company, providing services at 765-plus locations, including 760-plus 18-hole equivalent golf courses around the globe.
Fourie said he appreciates the opportunity to work with Cameron Tomberlin, Highland’s tournament coordinator and operations manager, as well as Highland golf instructor Wayne Flint and player development director Paul Killgallon.
“Cameron, Wayne and Paul are good people and are good to work with,” Fourie said.
Fourie said he also is working on a partnership with Lakeshore Foundation.
Rough Start to Life
Fourie, 29, was born in the Cherkassy Region of central Ukraine with only a left arm as well as a cleft lip and palate due to the damaging effects of radiation from the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986. He has undergone 26 surgeries in his lifetime.
At the age of 7, he was adopted by the Rev. Anton Fourie and his wife, Elizabeth, who were South African missionaries serving in Alabama. At the time of his adoption in 1999, Fourie weighed only 35 pounds and ate soup for nearly every meal. Soon after arriving in the U.S., he began swinging a golf club and eventually became an accomplished golfer.
Fourie played in the No. 2 spot on his high school golf team at Shades Mountain Christian before ultimately becoming a PGA golf professional. He is currently level one certified for the Titleist Performance Institute and an associate member of the Titleist Performance Institute.
During the past year, Fourie has appeared on NBC Sports and Golf Channel, and in articles in Forbes, Golfweek, Golf Digest as well as other local news outlets. He recently signed an apparel agreement with Loud Mouth Golf and will soon appear on a podcast with golf legend John Daly. Fourie also has plans to shoot an instructional video with famed YouTube instructor Rick Shiels.
Through his charity, Single Hand Golf, Fourie has raised money for orphanages called Hope Now in the Cherkassy Region of Ukraine, getting orphans out of the country during its war with Russia.
“Right now, we’ve gotten out all of the orphans we can get out,” Fourie said. “I think it’s 353. Now we’re providing first-aid kits for people in Kyiv and the region around it. We’ve raised $83,000 at last check.”
English (US)