Caroline Larsson: Exclusive Interview, Part Two
Getting a prosthetic leg wasn’t that important as the fastest it would be to deliver one would be a month and I was hitting balls within two weeks.
By this time I was preparing for this tournament and there wouldn’t be time to try the prosthetic leg. I found my balance pretty fast and I could then train for the tournament.
It was the only time that I never thought about my score. It was a team tournament, I played with my sister, and we won with a foursomes score of +1 against teams like Caroline Hedwall and her sister. It was the best I had ever played.
Before my surgery I loved to train my balance and work on my core so that was a good base, afterwards I had to retrain the small muscles in my foot and I got a lot of cramps in the beginning. I played golf on one leg for one year. On one leg it is strangely much easier to stand on an uneven lie so it is always a question now of where to place the prosthetic leg.
With one leg you have more flexibility. I played on the Nordea Tour this year with a handicap of 1 (0.8) so I am back to the same level that I was. This year I got my PGA membership back and that was great.
I don’t compare my life before and after the surgery. I’m not allowed to use a buggy on LET Access Series tournaments. There are only three Nordea tournaments that I can play in as it is part of the Access Series. I don’t know why they think a buggy would be an advantage, the way I see it is that when you are walking you feel the conditions of the course.
They are positive that this might change but nothing has been decided yet. I don’t compare my life before and after the surgery. I can’t do anything that I did before but I can do everything that I do on one leg if that makes sense.
My goal isn’t to get on to the LET as I have started to give inspirational talks since 2011 and that has become a big part of my life. Those lectures are so important so the goal to reach the LET would be 100 per cent golf and I couldn’t stop the lectures.
My goal is to become a better player than before and to play on the LET Access and to write a book. I did a talk at the launch of the Solheim Cup as my boyfriend lives in Germany and I practise at St Leon Rot and they put a feature of me on the big screen at the gala dinner.
I got a prosthetic leg from someone who I don’t know. He said that he doesn’t want to be known and he said he gave me the leg to continue my dream. I mentioned in an article that this was the leg that I would want as it would be good for my other knee and I received it on December 22 2011.
There was a note that said the chain in life is that we all help each other and my only request is that I help somebody else in the future. It was amazing.
One day I will meet him I’m sure and it would be great to tell him that I’m doing good.
For more golf news, discussion and videos follow @NCGmagazine on Twitter, like us on Facebook, subscribe to our YouTube video channel, and sign up to our newsletter
