Fernando Vega, wheelchair golfer determined to be the best
Fernando Vega de Seoane, with an exciting life story, is one of the special sponsors who often participates in LQDVI Foundation projects. In this interview he talks about the sport he is passionate about.
Questions to Fernando Vega, his words
1º Ask Fernando Vega
– How did your love for golf start and how long have you been playing golf?
– My love for golf is very genetic. In my family, we have always played golf. One of the first gifts we used to get for Epiphany, when we were very little, was a bag of clubs. As we were members of the Club de Campo Villa de Madrid, all the cousins had a plan there that was the bomb. We were released in the morning with a field hockey stick, some golf clubs, a bathing suit and a sandwich and we would spend the whole day in the field.
2º Ask Fernando Vega
– What does golf represent to you? A hobby? An opportunity to spend time with friends and make new ones? A way to compete against yourself and other players? An excuse to schedule a getaway, travel and discover places, courses and tournaments you didn’t know about?
– For me, golf represents, exactly, a sum of everything described in the question, but with a little nuance. Since I broke my back, I am determined to become the best wheelchair golfer in the world. It’s a super personal challenge. I used to be a very good golfer and even became 3 times champion of Spain, but I could never have aspired to be the best in the world. Now, however, with this new situation, I have clear aspirations and a huge determination to achieve it.
3º Ask Fernando Vega
– How has golf helped you to continue practicing, after the accident, something as essential in your life as sport? Has it played an important role in helping you adapt to the changes?
– With the extent of my spinal cord injury, which greatly reduces my mobility, I never thought golf would even be a possibility. But, by finding a paragolfer, the chair that allows me to play, it all comes down to a matter of adapting the biomechanics. In the end, it’s all about getting the ball in the hole with as few shots as possible, so anything goes. If we’ve seen Seve hit it on his knees under a tree, someone like me has to be able to do it too.
4º Ask Fernando Vega
– What does it take to become a Spanish Adapted Golf Champion? What separates you right now from reaching your goal of becoming the best in the world?
– In the whole process to become the best paragolfer in the world, in fact, in 2024 I won the Spanish championship of adapted golf played in Alicante. The goal for 2025 is to win the US Open, which is held in July in Washington, the European Championship in Sweden in August, and all the tournaments of the Spanish circuit that are within reach. Today, I think that what separates me from my goal is, fundamentally, to keep practicing. After 2 years playing, what I need now is to maintain the constancy that allows me to go little by little more robustness with which to perfect the biomechanics and not make mistakes. But I see it close.
5º Ask Fernando Vega
– What values can be instilled in young people through sport and, specifically, through golf?
– I would say that golf is the sport of personal and individual improvement par excellence. Think that you are playing alone in an open course where you can only rely on your own abilities. It’s like playing against a mirror that confronts you over and over again. This makes golf very hard and, in many occasions, not very rewarding. But, when you are able to recognize and accept that golf, like yourself, is an imperfect game, the next step is to try to be the best version of yourself. This is, in my view, what golf should inspire us.
If you want to see more articles of interest visit our Interviews section.
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