WAADGA PROFILES

W. Gordon Watters

President

Gordon was born in Edinburgh, Scotland in 1953 and educated at Melville College. His introduction to sport and recreational activities was well supported by his school and his family.

Family life very much revolved around golf, with the Broomieknowe Golf Club being just a 10min walk from the family house where his father was a keen golfer and Secretary/Captain for many years. Sundays were always spent at the Club and family summer holidays spent in Nairn where his father played in the Open Championship each year while Gordon and his brother fooled around on the adjoining ‘short course’.

Gordon’s passion for mountaineering took him away from golf for most of his teenage years and an unforseen climbing accident in 1970 lead to the amputation of his right leg below the knee. He continued his climbing following his recovery but never felt the same about it and moved to skiing to still be in the mountains.

He became an accomplished downhill skier. He has been fortunate to have skied in some of the worlds best ski areas: Wengen, Park City, Queenstown and here in Australia in the snowfields of NSW and Victoria to name a few.

However, golf was still in his blood, and as a member of the Carnoustie Golf Club, he achieved a single figure handicap in the 1980’s (he still believes that this was worth two or three shots at any other course).

In the ‘teatime’ of his life he has returned to the mountains, fulfilling a teenage dream and climbing Mt Kilimanjaro in 2007 and a trek to Everest Base Camp in 2009.

He has never viewed the loss of his leg as a disadvantage but rather an opportunity to achieve his goals by a slightly different means. It is this positive outlook, the pride his sporting achievements has brought to him and his family, and a sense  of privilege that opportunities presented themselves to him  that  drives him to offer what he can to others …….. to provide an opportunity to step on to the tee and enjoy what golf has to offer.