Dylan Baines woke up to be told he would not walk again. Five years later he became a golfing champion, having won what was just his third event on the European Disabled Golf Association (EDGA) tour.
At 22 years old, Baines was in the back of a van involved in a road accident. He suffered a broken neck.
Baines, from Penpedairheol in the Rhymney Valley, goes as far as to suggest that “in many ways golf saved my life”.
“Golf came to me at exactly the right time,” he says. “About two years after my accident, I was really struggling with my mental health.”
Baines was a keen sportsman as a young man, whether on the rugby or football pitch, ski slope or golf course.
But everything changed on 1 July, 2017, when the accident left him paralysed from the neck down.
“I couldn’t move anything,” he explains.
“One of the first things I asked the surgeon was ‘will I ever walk again?’. He just said no, basically.
“It’s like your world’s ending to be honest. I had just turned 22 – I was absolutely devastated.
“I understand they have got to tell you as it is. But I don’t think ever I truly believed him. Luckily my body agreed with me.”
Remarkably, Baines now describes himself as “one of the lucky ones”.
He remains paralysed down his left side, but has regained enough movement to return to golf.
Baines was in hospital for four months after the accident. It was around six weeks into his treatment that there was a “first glimmer of hope”.
“My big toe on my right leg was the first thing I could move,” he says.
“I just went crazy. Slowly more and more started to come back on my right side. Then my left side, slowly.
“Not as much has come back [on the left] unfortunately, but here I am walking round and I can’t believe it to be honest.”
Baines, now 27, has had to get used to regular trips to the physio in the last five years.
It was at one session that he spotted a poster on the wall featuring Mike Jones, a leg amputee who has won EDGA events.
“My physio put us in contact,” Baines says. “Mike took me then to France, to my first event, and I have loved it ever since.”
Baines’ handicap meant he played in the stableford scoring category in France in May, where he finished fourth, before he came second in July’s Irish Open.
By November, his handicap was down to 17.1, meaning he entered the net score division at Portugal’s Algarve Open with the hope of finishing in the top 10. With Jones as his caddy, Baines made a par on the last to secure a memorable victory.
“It’s a fantastic story,” says Christian Askins, Wales Golf’s championship manager.
“Five years ago he didn’t know whether he would be able to walk again, and he is still paralysed down his left side.
“But he is able to play golf under the modified rules of golf, which mean he can anchor the club in his left side and hold it with his right arm.
“For Dylan to win [in the Algarve] is a fantastic achievement.”
Baines has no sponsorship, so can only play selected events on the EDGA tour because of the finances involved.
The next stop is the Scottish Open at St Andrews in April 2023, when dad Keith will carry his bag.
“We’ll see how that goes,” Baines says through a smile.
“We have both always wanted to go to St Andrews so we couldn’t miss this one. It’s a bucket-list moment.”
Baines’ longer-term target is to get his handicap below 7.5, which would make him eligible for EDGA’s gross score division – and events which are played alongside those on the DP World Tour.
That means plenty of hours on the range – and on his home course, Bargoed Golf Club, with his mates.
It was when he started to beat them, Baines explains, that he realised he had some golfing talent.
“It’s nice because for years I wasn’t able to compete with them at anything – they are rugby players and everything,” Baines says.
“But it’s nice to compete with them on the golf course and get a win now and again.”
