By chance, the immediate aftermath of the accident in August 2017 was filmed by an on-board camera crew for the network TV show ‘Emergency Helicopter Medics’, during which viewers learned how 71-year-old Carol Grinnell was about to be airlifted to safety after falling from the back of a boat as it was being moored on the Norfolk Broads. Her foot and ankle had been violently slashed by the boat’s propeller.
As they awaited the helicopter, Carol’s daughter Susie took control and wrapped a tourniquet around Carol’s leg to stem the bleeding. This may have saved her life but on arrival at hospital the news was shocking: amputation of the lower left leg was needed, just below the knee.
Her family: husband Patrick, children Susan, Ben, Jules and James feared for Carol. Her active lifestyle was a source of family pride (Carol playing all sports growing up including athletics, and at county level, squash, badminton and swimming, then later horse-riding, tennis and golf). The hospital staff insisted that Carol should christen her shortened left leg. She shrugged and named it “Peggy”. They all put on a brave face.
This took place more than seven years ago, and Carol’s turned out to be the bravest face of the lot.
She remembers: “They encourage you to name your stump to help accept the situation. So being supple I used to bring my knee upwards and kiss ‘her’ saying, ‘You’ll be alright Peggy!’ Well, this made everyone in Critical Care laugh. I was determined not to feel sorry for myself. It was an accident, they happen.
“Since then I have been inspired by playing with golfers with far more complex amputations and other serious conditions; highly resilient people who put my injury into perspective.”
On May 15 2025, Carol made her debut at Woburn in The G4D Open, staged by The R&A in partnership with the DP World Tour, supported by EDGA; taking her place (sport class ‘Standing 3’) as the senior player among 80 players from 20 countries.
Playing among the top ranked G4D players in the world didn’t faze her. Carol says: “I just go out and enjoy it. I don’t care how far the others drive the ball because I know that at the end of the day we’ve all got to get that ball into the hole in our own way.”
Her qualifying excited the whole family and Carol had been practising hard, but in truth her whole commitment to her fitness since the accident has been outstanding. The 79-year-old looks younger than her years, helped by a comprehensive daily regimen of varied strength, stretching, and aerobic exercises, including 50 to 80 lengths of the local swimming pool, supplemented by at least three rounds of golf per week, using a buggy at present – although Carol remains determined to walk the course again. “Age is just a number,” laughs the grandmother of 10 (she has three great-grandchildren).
“The moral is ‘little by little’,” she urges. “When I started doing ‘the plank’ two years ago I could manage five seconds, but you build up gradually, the same with weights, a little at a time. Set a time of day in your mind, and just work from there. I promise you that you will see results.”
Patrick had introduced Carol to golf in 1969 but their young children got in the way, Carol returning to the game aged 60. After many happy rounds together, she lost her “best golf and tennis partner” Patrick in 2022.
“Golf can therefore become very important as a social outlet. The most important thing is getting out into the fresh air playing with lots of people,” says Carol, whose Handicap Index is 27. The “amazing” people at Tadmarton Heath Golf Club in Oxfordshire provide an inclusive feel, encouraging partners for competitions, weekly ‘roll-ups’ and friendlies against other clubs.
Carol found ‘G4D’ through the Disabled Golf Association last year and from there she learned about EDGA events and then The G4D Open.
“Nothing is impossible until I’ve tried it and found it to be so. It hasn’t always been a bed of roses. I refuse to give up and sometimes have had the most horrendous raw blisters on Peggy, and then been forced into a wheelchair for a spell while they heal.”
While Carol didn’t find her best form on The Duchess Course at Woburn in The G4D Open she said she was proud of herself for committing to every shot, and it was typical that she was seen encouraging the other players around her, making new friends of all ages.
In the build-up to Woburn, Carol revealed she had played two rounds in Hampshire before the practice day and then the three-day tournament itself, six rounds in six days. “I’m using a buggy, Peggy will be fine,” Carol stressed, looking as if you’re barmy for asking the question.
This from a woman recently filmed by the family doing a diving back-flip off a jetty into the sea in Cyprus as she approaches her 80th birthday. Carol still loves the water, despite family research that lists a great-grandfather who died on a whaling ship in Tasmania, a grandfather who worked as a bosun and died on the Titanic, while her grandmother on her paternal side was lost swimming in the Bay of Biscay.
As with the water, golf is now also a vital part of Carol’s story. Before our chat she had just done her exercises, completed 50 lengths in the pool, walked some Labrador puppies she was looking after, and was next off to test her newly custom-fitted PING clubs. With that, Carol should be well set for all her golfing tests ahead in the rest of this season, as will Peggy be… of course!
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