Teenager’s life changed after falling down the stairs

A teenage gymnast whose tumbling days were cut short by a terrible accident now hopes to forge a career on the golf course.

Summer Griffiths, 18, channeled her love of competitive sports into golf after breaking both her arms falling down the stairs in November 2019. She now dreams of becoming a fully fledged member of the Ladies Professional Golf Association – an American organization for female golfers – as she jets off to Kansas, USA, to study on a hard-earned scholarship.

Her mum Stephanie, 48, said: “She had been a gymnast for years. She broke every single school record. She had a major accident when she tripped and fell down the stairs at her cousin’s house, and she had two operations on one of her arms at Whiston Hospital. Even holding a pencil was hard. But golf trained her arms up again.

“She wasn’t able to do gymnastics again. She just put her mind to something else and approached the sport head-on. She practiced a lot, and now she’s doing so well.”

Summer, from Huyton, first took up golf aged 13 after being inspired by her dad, Paul, who also enjoys the sport. The Carmel College student recently won a two-year scholarship to play golf at Garden City Community College, Kansas, almost 4,500 miles from her home city.

Stephanie said: “Summer’s passion for the sport is amazing. She watches it, she follows it, she even designed her own golf range. She loves everything about it. She plays constantly.

“But it’s a rich man’s game and we’re finding out more and more how hard it is. The flight alone to Kansas is £1,600. She has a scholarship which covered her food and part of her digs, competition travel expenses and part of her studies. We have to fund part of the digs, which is £1,000, the VISA, the health insurance, there’s so many things in between we didn’t expect.

“It is an unusual sport for a teenager, and especially for the area she comes from. It’s not really associated with this area because it’s such an expensive sport. The people she competes aagainst are all quite well off.

“She comes up against a lot of hurdles with the expenses, even down to the cost of the golf clubs.”

Golfer Summer Griffiths, 18, from Huyton, has won a scholarship to study sports in Kansas, USA

She said Summer has already attracted several sponsors for her golfing – but is on the look-out for more, as these will not come into play until after she moves to America on August 10.

Stephanie said: “I’m in awe of her. I can’t believe how she’s come back from everything and achieved what she has. She’s extremely sporty, broke every school record, ran every cross country. That’s why we want to give her the best possible chance even though it’s so expensive.

“We’re already panicking about her going to America, but we’ve got to give her the best chance we can.”

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References

1. ^{^} Liverpool Council defends spending thousands on attending awards events (www.liverpoolecho.co.uk)
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