By Rubin E. Grant
Chris Biggins is no ordinary two-sport athlete.
He has battled cerebral palsy, a permanent movement disorder, since he was practically a baby.
“My family found out when I was 1 or 2,” Biggins said. “My development was slow and they figured something was wrong.
“I’ve had to have several surgeries, physical therapy and a treatment plan so I can function in day-to-day life. With the correct treatment, I do the best I can.”
Even so, Biggins, 27, hasn’t let his condition stop him from becoming one of the top golfers with disabilities in the world as well as a potential Paralympics skier.
Earlier this year, the Royal & Ancient Golf Club of St. Andrews in Scotland and the European Disabled Golf Association debuted a world golf ranking system for individuals with disabilities. Both the United States Golf Association and United States Disabled Golf Association joined in to create the first tournament held in the U.S., called the United States Disabled Open Golf Championship.
The 2019 USDOGC was the first time competitors could earn world-ranking points by playing in the event. It was held in May at Independence Golf Club in Richmond, Virginia, with a field of 74 golfers from eight countries.
Biggins, the PGA assistant golf professional at the Country Club of Birmingham, won the event’s top division in a one-hole playoff.
“At first I didn’t know if it was something that I wanted to play in,” Biggins said in an interview after the tournament. “After talking with others who I’ve played in events with in the past, I realized it was something I needed to put on my radar because of the world-ranking opportunities. Nothing like this has ever been done before.”
Golfing on the World Stage
The victory earned Biggins a spot in the inaugural EDGA Scottish Open, held July 13-14 at the Renaissance Club in North Berwick – about a 45-minute drive east of Edinburgh.
The 36-hole event featured 10 players from the World Rankings for Golfers with Disability and was played alongside the Aberdeen Standard Investments Scottish Open, a Rolex Series event.
Biggins finished fourth, 11 strokes behind the winner.
“It was unbelievable, blew me away,” Biggins said after returning home to Birmingham. “It was such a cool place. It was my first time out of the country other than Canada.
“I had a few rough holes the last day and came in fourth. I beat six out of the top 10 in the world, but I was disappointed because I wanted to come in first. It was still a cool experience.”
The EDGA Scottish Open was the first of two disability championships scheduled alongside Rolex Series events on the 2019 Race to Dubai. The other is the 36-hole EDGA Dubai Finale that will be featured as part of the season-ending DP World Tour Championship, in Dubai in November at Jumeirah Golf Estates.
Biggins is hoping to play in that event, as well.
“They take the top six disabled golfers in the world, but you have to qualify,” he said. “I have two more tournaments in Canada in August. If I play well, I could get one of those spots in Dubai.”
Whether he makes it to Dubai or not, Biggins will head to the western United States in November for his other sport. For the past four years, he has trained as a skier for four months of the year in Park City, Utah, at the U.S. Paralympic Training and Development Center.
“I’m in the national disability skiing program,” Biggins explained. “I live there from mid-November to March. I am trying to make the Paralympics team for 2022. It’s going to be tough. You have to be on top of your game. I’m optimistic.”
Growing Up
Whatever Biggins accomplishes, he credits his family, especially his brothers, one older and one younger. They were outside all the time, playing a variety of sports while growing up in Clarksville, Maryland.
“They didn’t want my disability to be a hindrance, so we were always active,” Biggins said. “We practiced developing my abilities.
“In the summer when my dad would go to work, he would drop us off at Enterprise Golf Course and they let us help around the club as much as 7- to 10-year-olds could. We helped in the kitchen, picked up trash and then they’d let us play golf in the afternoon.”
Despite his fondness for golf, Biggins’ first love was baseball. That changed when he was in high school.
“My sophomore year I didn’t make the team and that lit the fire for me to turn 100 percent to golf,” he said. “I got involved in the First Tee program for junior golfers and got the golfing bug.”
Coming to Birmingham
Biggins played college golf his junior and senior years as a walk on at Methodist University in Fayetteville, North Carolina. He had enrolled in the PGA Golf Management Program at Methodist, and that eventually led to him coming to Birmingham.
During his 4½ years at Methodist, Biggins completed three internships at the Country Club of Birmingham. He eventually made Birmingham his home when he accepted a full-time position under PGA Director of Golf Eric Eshleman.
While in college, Biggins was able to keep coming to Birmingham because of United Ability, which serves individuals with physical and mental disabilities, to help raise awareness for special events and money to benefit programming.
“Methodist usually liked for you to go different places for internships, but I played the United Ability card to let me come back because I could get treatment there,” Biggins said.
“After college, it was tougher because the pediatric care stops, but United Ability came along and helped with that because they offer care to kids and adults. I was lucky to have that fall in my lap to keep going. I’m in better physical condition now than I have ever been in my life.”
Biggins became part of the United Ability junior board in 2017.
“I’ve always loved United Ability,” he said. “I love the opportunity to give back.”
Hitting the Slopes
As for skiing, Biggins began hitting the slopes while on family vacations.
“We would drive up from Maryland to Vermont whenever we had an extended break from school, either Christmas or spring break,” he said. “When I was in college, I went to a camp in Colorado called Hartford Ski Spectacular.”
The Hartford Ski Spectacular is hosted by Disabled Sports USA at the Beaver Run Resort in Breckenridge, Colorado, and is one of the nation’s largest winter sports festivals for people with disabilities, with more than 800 registered participants annually.
“I got to see what it was all about, and after I graduated my plan was to go out there for one week,” Biggins said. “They told me I couldn’t stay there to train, so I started going to Park City.”
Being a two-sport athlete is something Biggins plans to continue doing.
“My goal has never been to be the best golfer in the world or the best skier in the world – I want to be both,” he said. “The two sports complement each other. I don’t want to concentrate on just one.”