Clair Was Told She Had Five Years. Eight Years Later, She's Still Teeing It Up.
Every golfer knows the deal. You spend four hours spraying it into the trees, flush one 7-iron on 16, and you’re already planning next weekend. For most of us, that’s the whole reason we keep coming back. For Claire, it’s a lot bigger than that.
Claire was diagnosed with Parkinson’s at 35 and told she’d need care within five years.
Most people think of Parkinson’s as something that hits later in life. Claire was 35. She’d already been through loss and a health crisis that nearly took everything from her, and now she had a diagnosis that felt like a countdown clock. She wasn’t going to sit there and watch it run.
A year and a half ago she took up golf as a complete beginner. She had no background in the game and no real reason to start, beyond wanting to try something new. Learning a golf swing means repeating the same motion until your body remembers it, and her body doesn’t always want to cooperate. All that repetition started working on her in a way she hadn’t felt before, and her instructor saw it too: it was helping her manage her symptoms. Her brain was being asked to work, and it was answering.
One good shot
Claire talks about the dopamine hit from one perfect shot, the swing where everything connects and the ball does exactly what you asked. Her take: hit one beautiful shot and you’ll keep coming back. Anybody who’s played knows she’s right. It makes no sense and it’s completely real, and it’s why you’re back on the first tee a week after swearing you were done with this game.
The people at the club
The rest of it is the people. When Claire walks through the door, someone asks how she’s doing and means it. On days she’s not well enough to walk far, someone from the club drives to her house and picks her up so she can still get out and play.
Then there’s Dave. He’s a fellow member, he also has Parkinson’s, and he’s working through a personal challenge to play the top 100 courses in the UK and Ireland. He’s got two left. Most of us can’t get the group chat to commit to a Saturday. Claire calls him the most positive person she knows.
According to Claire, loneliness is the biggest killer in Parkinson’s: the isolation, and slowly disappearing from the life you used to have. Golf is how she fights it. It isn’t therapy in any formal sense. It’s a place to be, and a group of people who will literally come get her on the days she can’t get there herself.
Eight years in
She’s eight years past her diagnosis now, and past the timeline she was given. There’s no cure, and she isn’t waiting around for one. She’s waiting for the next round, and the next morning somebody holds the door and asks how she’s doing.
Golf won’t fix Parkinson’s. It gave Claire one good shot to chase and a club full of people who show up for her.
---
**Sources**
- [Coping With Grief and Loss | National Institute on Aging](https://www.nia.nih.gov/health/grief-and-mourning/coping-grief-and-loss)
- [Breaking Out of ADHD Relationship Dysfunction — After Not Breaking a Fall](https://adhdrollercoaster.org/breaking-out-of-adhd-relationship-dysfunction/)
- [Fighting Fair in A Relationship: How to Get What You Need and Stay Close While You Do It - Hey Sigmund](https://heysigmund.com/fighting-fair/)
- [5 Coping Strategies for the Grief and Loss of a Relationship](https://life-care-wellness.com/5-coping-strategies-for-grief-and-loss-of-a-relationship/)
- [8 Ways to Be There for Someone Through Job Loss - Wondermind](https://www.wondermind.com/article/help-with-job-loss/)
Original Source: Get Into Golf