Kris’s story: An ability to focus, a desire to include
Kris Aves has an intense concentration at times when competing but he also loves the spirit of camaraderie that G4D (golf for the disabled) tournaments offer their players. When he is not looking to be razor sharp in performance, he admits to loving to chat, share stories and encourage those around him. Golf may be an individual sport but this North Londoner says he thrives on “the team feeling” found in the game he returned to after the most difficult time in his life. This sport – although so often very challenging to play – has him constantly returning to the tee with an expectant smile, digging deep and determined to succeed.
We were fortunate to speak with Kris the day after he had been working hard at his first England Golf Disability Squad coaching session at Woodhall Spa in Lincolnshire. After a season of highs and lows Kris said he really appreciated the coaching provided and the England Golf sessions would help him focus in the sport in 2026 and onwards.
Kris’s story has been widely publicised in golfing circles. The now 44-year-old former Met Police officer was injured in the terrorist attack on Westminster Bridge in March 2017. Struck by the attacker’s car, he received severe spinal injuries that left him paralysed from the chest down. Kris spent a week in an induced coma and went on to spend ten months at Stoke Mandeville Hospital after three weeks at King’s College Hospital for surgery. His legs and spine suffered compound fractures which needed corrective surgeries.
A keen golfer before the attack, Kris says: “Going through my rehab in hospital, there were three things I was really worried that I wouldn’t be able to do properly again. One of these was that I didn’t think I’d ever play golf again.”
Through a mutual contact, he met Cai Menai-Davis of The Shire London who runs a charity called The Golf Trust, which focuses on getting individuals with disabilities and older people out onto the golf course. Kris has since been able to rediscover his golf with the aid of a Paramotion – a special mobility device that lifts people from a sitting to a standing position.
“I got inside and was able to make a swing,” he said. “That first hit brought tears to my eyes. Even though I knew I’d never get back to the standard I had been, I was able to play again.”
Kris realised he needed to get his own Paramotion costing upwards of £25,000.
“I was extremely lucky,” he added. “At a pub I drink in called The Railway Tavern in Barnet, the landlord Kieran Guthrie is a big golfer and he put on a golf day for me, they did a raffle, an auction, and they raised £17,000 in one day and I was able to buy a Paramotion. It was phenomenal that so many people came out to raise money for me.”
Kris was able to recount this story when playing for a third successive year in The G4D Open at Woburn in May, 2025. The championship, held in partnership between The R&A and the DP World Tour and supported by EDGA, was one of the most inclusive ever staged, featuring nine sports classes across multiple impairment groups with 80 players competing from 20 countries, an event which attracted international media attention, including from the BBC.
“I was over the moon to earn my place and it was an honour to play,” says Kris. “To meet people from across Europe and around the world.”
He would also get to thank all his friends who had helped him from The Railway Tavern in an interview he gave to BBC Breakfast on the eve of the championship, as the pub’s landlord Kieran gave him a ring during the interview.
Kris says: “It was fantastic to be able to thank all my friends again through the BBC like that, and if a few people watching who had any related health conditions or any disability, and felt encouraged and more positive – or may even have been inspired to try golf – then that would make me feel really proud.
“Golf is such a great sport to be involved in. I love the competitive side of the game, but you wouldn’t believe the friendships that can be made in G4D events. Everyone encourages you, if you hit a bad shot, it’s ‘the next one will be the best one’, and if you hit a good one there is always a ‘well played’. When I went to my first tournaments I found that no-one is ‘above themselves’, everyone is happy to chat with a new player. There is a great feeling of being welcomed. We play some very competitive golf out there but there is always an encouraging atmosphere, which is exactly as it should be.”
A highlight Kris recalls from 2024, again satisfying his pleasure of team golf, was representing England in the EGA European Team Championship Nation’s Cup in Germany.
In 2025 on the G4D circuit, Kris won the Grand Prix Paragolf De Roissy Stableford in France in March, and also played in the EDGA Algarve Masters at Gramacho, the EDGA Tour London Golf Club, and the Lancashire Open for Golfers with a Disability.
As a member at The Shire London, near to where he lives in the north of the city, Kris speaks of the importance of a welcoming golf club for new players. He was “proud and delighted” to win the overall Stableford prize in The Golf Trust Open this year on his home course. “This meant such a lot to me because when I first returned to golf I was welcomed and encouraged by the great team at The Golf Trust, who really made me feel at home, and I now look to do the same thing for others. I always want to be there to listen to others and help and advise where I can, to make everyone feel welcomed into golf.”
It will have been no surprise to his friends and those who have met Kris that he was appointed as non-playing Captain for the 2026 Cairns Cup match held between teams of golfers from Europe and the USA.
For his own game, playing from a golf Handicap Index of 23.1 at the time of writing, Kris’s plan ahead is aiming to get to an 18.4 Index to qualify for Nett tournaments.
“One thing I am working especially hard on is my putting, which has been a source of great frustration for me,” Kris said. “I feel that if I can improve this and be more consistent I could ultimately save myself five to 10 shots per round.”
Kris enjoys talking about the technical side of the game, his swing and that of other players, and he praised the games of fellow seated players such as Richard Kluwen (Netherlands), Melody Roccaz (France), Phil Meadows (England), Graham Freeman (Belgium), Ian St John (Ireland) and others. All good players that he is looking to beat in competition, but who are nevertheless all part of a group he respects and likes. It’s that team element again.
It’s the checking on other players, many of whom have become his friends after four years of playing G4D tournaments. In amongst the banter, the comments on shots, Kris is instinctively being a team player with the others around him.
There are perhaps two sides to the golfer Kris Aves, the man who has defied the odds and through his own courage has met the immense challenges of his life with a generosity of spirit for others and a twinkle in the eye. But the other side seems to be about supporting others, exemplified so well on the golf course. Few sum up that great strength of the game of golf better than Kris. On the one hand, he is determined, focused, and wants to win each tournament or match, but at the same time he respects and admires those he plays against and with. It’s golf’s dual personality that makes this game so special and valuable to all who play.
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