“Never give up. Try everything: it’s possible more than you think,” says the 61-year-old Jörg Pliskat.
Looking back, the 22-year-old version of Jörg did well to survive the accident. He recovered limited use of his right leg over time but the damage was severe. He had loved to play sport, football and tennis, and the leg injury bluntly closed a chapter in his life that he had enjoyed immensely, and that had helped to give him his identity.
The athletic young man from Wolfenbüttel, Lower Saxony, could no longer emulate his footballing hero, twice World Cup finalist Paul Breitner of West Germany. Jörg had modelled his game as a fellow ‘left back’ defender on Breitner’s, and had studied from the stands the 1974 World Cup winner as he played in the Bundesliga, mainly for Bayern Munich, winning seven league titles alongside some of the greatest players.
For young Jörg Pliskat however, any distant footballing dream ended there in multiple bone fractures. The defender had lost his main asset. Case closed.
Time heals wounds and the spirit can revive in marvellous ways.
In discovering golf more than three decades later in 2019, starting aged 55, Jörg completed a remarkable return to sport, finding a game he loved to play, out with friends again in the fresh air, something Jörg says he could not have achieved without “some great people” around him. “I am grateful to many,” he tells us.
A number of times in fact, in different ways, he has been encouraged to keep going, to keep trying in life, to push himself on. Golf has “opened up so much” for this likeable semi-retired sales manager who today is absorbed in an exciting and active life built around playing golf: travelling, competing, and playing for fun with old and new friends, while usually feeling fitter than ever.
“I learned that if you keep trying in any activity, and trust yourself, you can get there,” Jörg tells us.
When Jörg was younger he had trained as an electrician, he became skilled in this discipline, good at his job, and would stay with Germany’s largest electrical company for 40 years. He is still there today.
Apart from the football, another fascination in his early twenties was the motorbikes. He loved riding them.
In 1988, Jörg was travelling back from a trip through the Alps on his Kawasaki 600. He had driven through the high, treacherous mountain lanes and found himself on a flat, straight road.
“I can still remember it very well. It was In Austria, a car ran me over on the country road.
“My left leg was broken countless times from the ankle up to the thigh. There were some open fractures as well. The biggest problem was some infection that came into the leg, which also led to stiffening of the leg later.
“When I was in hospital in Austria, from the first moment, I wanted to get well; this is my life I thought. I didn’t have any depression, which I think was due to the great support from my family and friends. For all the time I was there in Austria, more than five weeks, I had many visitors from Germany. My friends all came and we played cards and talked and laughed.
“When I got back home, the first evening they said, ‘Right, we are all off to the pub’, and I went with them, two ahead of me and one behind, to make sure nobody bumped into my recovering leg. We could all have a beer together, it was great.
“I had more than 20 surgeries on the leg over 1.5 years. It took that length of time before I could walk without any walking aids. During that time I was constantly having physical therapy. Three months later, I started working again. I wouldn’t have got through this difficult time without the support of my family and friends. I am very grateful.”
When Jörg was young he had seen golf on TV, and as when watching Paul Breitner, there was another home produced world champion right in front of him on the screen, the young Bernhard Langer from Bavaria, a Ryder Cup star who would win The Masters at Augusta twice. Jörg laughs about it now. “I liked watching him but I never thought to play, I thought golf was only for old men.”
Instead, he put his energies into his family and working diligently for his company, gaining experience and finally becoming a sales manager, a post he has held for the last 17 years, while currently scaling back his work as he thinks about his retirement.
Then, in 2019, one day a work colleague, a good friend, suggested he should try golf, brushing aside Jörg’s view that he wouldn’t be able to learn because of his leg.
“When my friend took me to the driving range, I thought it wouldn’t work at all. At the beginning it wasn’t easy for me, but he motivated me to keep going. As a right-hander, I tried to play that way, logically, but it didn’t work with my leg, I got pain in my hip. He then told me that I just had to play like a left-hander and he found me some left-handed clubs.”
Jörg’s friend is Christian Domin, a successful amateur golfer in Germany, playing for years at the highest level. The pair make sure they play a few times together each year.
“Christian encouraged me so much. He said, come on let’s try at the driving range. He said it isn’t easy at first but you really can do this if you try. Coming from a very good player this really did inspire me.
“It didn’t take all that long before it worked a little. But it felt really good when the first long and also straight shots began to work for me.”
When everything started to click, Jörg realised he had found a new sport he could play for the rest of his life.
“You can play at any age, I’m 61. it is great exercise, relaxing to play and there is the social connection. In golf, I love the combination of sport and nature. Every game is a new challenge and I’d recommend it as you can have a lot of fun in a great community.
“Golf is absolutely a sport that you can play very well with a disability. It gives you a really good feeling and makes you confident when you realise what is possible.”
Jörg adds: “It has been a great experience to have found a sport again that I love. I really enjoy playing with my friends, but I just as much enjoy playing tournaments. This is because every round is different. It’s a sport where you are completely responsible for your own performance. I like being outside in the fresh air, and it’s just a lot of fun.”
Golfclub Rittergut Hedwigsburg is clearly a friendly club in Lower Saxony, and Jörg sees it as a home from home where often he will play three times a week. Men’s and women’s team events flourish across the age categories, including for the over 70s.
“It’s a club where every player is welcome, whether a hobby player or athletically ambitious,” says Jörg. “I don’t play in a permanent group. I play with a mix of friends. I also train regularly with my coach who has taught me a lot.”
The Head Pro David Lee is English and a PGA Advanced Professional. He has coached Jörg for around three years.
“David is a very good coach who is very careful as he studies what I can do in order to get the most out of my swing. He considers everything I can do with my leg in terms of balance and movement, how this effects me. It is very important for a coach to take time to understand the person in front of them.”
Jörg came across ‘G4D’ (golf for the disabled) events by accident when he was on holiday in Denmark. The local players told him about G4D and EDGA.
“My first tournament was the German Championship in Warnemünde 2021. In G4D, it’s the sporting competition I really like but also the friendly interaction with each other. I’ve met a lot of great people at the EDGA tournaments, with whom I also stay in touch outside of the events.”
While playing these tournaments mainly in Germany, Jörg has also travelled to the Czech Republic, Portugal and Sweden. A win in the 2025 Czech Masters took Jörg into fifth place in the World Ranking for Golfers with Disability, which led to his qualification for the Stableford category of the 2025 European Play-offs held at North Hants Golf Club in England.
“This was my first tournament in England, and I was excited about playing the course at North Hants GC. It was more of an honour for me than a worrying challenge, but I was pretty nervous on the first tee. This was one of the best experiences I’ve had in golf.”
Not long afterwards he received the surprise news by email that he had reached the ‘world number one’ Stableford position in the Ranking which he would hold for a few months. “I was delighted that I achieved this, I never thought I would get this far when I started playing golf. My friends and family were very surprised and happy for me.”
Jörg says he has plenty of sporting dreams to come after the difficulties of his early twenties, and he thanks golf for giving him the opportunity.
“Never give up. Try everything: it’s possible more than you think.
“If you play G4D, you will see what’s possible with a disability. You have the opportunity to play on many excellent golf courses and will become a member of a great community,” says the man who once tried to emulate the footballer, Paul Breitner, but today looks at others for his inspiration.
“I really enjoy watching Rory McIlroy. I like his athletic game, especially his iron play, it’s incredible,” smiles Jörg, who just occasionally will hit an iron shot as crisply and well-timed as the great player, which is another beautiful thing about the game we play. We can emulate the greats, even if it is only in glimpses.
“I want to get better in any case,” says Jörg. “I don’t think 61 is too old to plan ahead.”
He is correct of course. But for all his competitive edge, when asked when he is most content in golf, Jörg replies: “When I’m happy with my game and also when I have nice people around me.”
This is a man who knows the value of friendship. Jörg recalls when his friends took him out for that beer as soon as he was back from the hospital. He will tell you of all the friends he has shared a golf course with over the last seven years. It’s a pretty good thing that sport offers this doorway into one of the happier parts of life. Jörg chose to walk through this door.
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