Chris Willis is relishing the opportunity to tee it up in back-to-back G4D Tour events, starting with the Amgen Irish Open at The K Club on Sunday.
The Canadian, who has VACTERL syndrome, an association of birth defects, has played in all three editions of The G4D Open since its inception in 2023, but never in a limited-field event.
But that all changes on Sunday, when he tees it up in the first of back-to-back two-day tournaments for the world’s leading golfers with a disability as the Amgen Irish Open returns to the G4D Tour schedule for the first time since 2022.
It was that same year, when the G4D Tour was launched, that Willis – now the World Number 13 in the Gross Rankings – first started competing in G4D events.
Since then, he has landed a series of individual accolades, including back-to-back Canadian All-Abilities Championship in 2023 and 2024 to be ranked sufficiently to earn his way to a spot in the ten-player mixed field at this week’s G4D Tour stop at The K Club in Ireland.
“This is what I’ve been working towards since I started disability golf in 2022,” said 44-year-old Willis.
“The idea that there is a series of events that lead to a season-ending tour championship was very motivating and an exciting prospect.
“It has definitely made me change around my life and make myself available for these tournaments.”
Across his three starts in The G4D Open – staged in partnership between The R&A and the DP World Tour – Willis has finished 12th in both 2023 and 2025, either side of a third-place finish in 2023.
With a strong international field assembled in Ireland, including World Number One Kipp Popert and leading home star Brendan Lawlor, the victory that is required to earn a spot at the season-ending G4D Tour Series Finale @ Rolex Grand Final in Mallorca later this year is no easy task.
Fellow Canadian Kurtis Barkley, who first made Willis aware of the G4D Tour, will also be in the field over the next two weeks, with the friendship between players being one of the great attributes of the sport.
“It’s very special that he [Kurtis] is in the first G4D Tour event that I have qualified for since he was the first who mentioned it to me and opened the door in my imagination to what I could possibly do,” he said.
Indebted to skills he learned during a five-day EDGA Player Development Camp in Portugal in 2024 – which the European Tour Group helps to fund year on year – Willis is better prepared for the attention, including media commitments, that now come with playing on the G4D Tour.
“The common cause that we have unites us. The common struggle, even though it might be a different struggle, unites us,” he said.
He added: “One of the main effects of my disabilities is to stay at home, not really want to go out socially, or when I do it can become more intense than it might for most people.
“It’s almost therapeutic in a sense that you come and you’re surrounded by people who are so positive with you. There’s no hiding, no pain, feeling of your disability.
“A common, yet perhaps unique, theme of all adaptive tournaments is that they have a very high level of competition, but also a high level of camaraderie.”
Field for the G4D Tour @ Amgen Irish Open
Kipp Popert (ENG)
Brendan Lawlor (IRL)
Lachlan Wood (AUS)
Mike Browne (ENG)
Tommaso Perrino (ITA)
Issa Nlareb (ITA)
Kurtis Barkley (CAN)
Chris Willis (CAN)
Ryanne Jackson (USA)
Fiona Gray (IRL)
