By Martin Dempster - The Scotsman

John Kennedy holds off John Laurie and Richard Johnston in exciting finis

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There are many things in this life which can truly give us inspiration – whether it be watching your sporting heroes winning or watching a good film, or even seeing someone get healthy again after being ill. Inspiration can leave us with a feeling of wellbeing and determination and can drive us on to great things.

As we all know Golf is a tough game which can be fickle and frustrating as well as exhilarating with the difference from playing well and not playing our best can be the smallest of margins.

Usually if we are injured or not feeling great, we can make an excuse not to play or even use it as a reason for playing poorly – which in fairness is ok.

Just six days before the London Marathon last April, a 59-year-old Paul Moultrie, founder of the Mind Body Golf fitness consultancy in Troon, Ayrshire, completed a programme of radiotherapy to treat his Prostate Cancer diagnosis, a course which he began four weeks before at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow.  

Paul began training for his fourth London Marathon in early December 2023, on the same day he started a two year long course of Hormone Therapy injections which are part of his treatment plan after his Prostate Cancer diagnosis a few months earlier. Paul took to the streets of London to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK Charity.

During the months leading up to the London Marathon and while Paul was preparing for his Radiotherapy treatment, he decided to take a short holiday to Tenerife in February where he intended doing some light training runs for the upcoming Marathon. With things going well with training in Tenerife another obstacle was put in his way when he accidentally slipped on a step and broke his Scaphoid Bone in his left wrist, resulting in it being in plaster for the next 9 weeks and putting a stop to his Marathon Training runs. Not to be deterred from his training, Paul then took it upon himself to start pounding the streets of Troon – with his wrist in plaster, often walking 10 miles a day in a bid to at least get his legs fit for the Marathon.

 I addition to undertaking the London Marathon whilst suffering from cancer, the side effects of the treatment also needed to be contended with. “It’s not been a walk in the park”, said Moultrie, “I’ve put on tummy fat, lost muscle mass and get hot flushes which are things I’d never dreamed I would get.”  

Many another people would have called it a day after all this and quit training, but in a remarkable show of determination, Paul then declared that, even if he had to walk part of the course, he would complete the London Marathon for the fourth time of which he did by finishing in 71/2 hours as after only 8km into the race his body began to say ‘NO’ which forced him to walk at the quickest pace he could to get over the line – for the record Paul ran his second London Marathon 15 years ago in a very impressive 31/2 hours.

His family have had a brush with cancer before, his mother Elizabeth dying of it, and with his wife Gillian, their two grown-up children and family and friends rallying round to support him, this gave him even more determination in his huge personal task of beating his own cancer and running the London Marathon to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK.

A quiet and private individual, he has also decided to speak about his illness to raise awareness of prostate cancer which will affect one in eight men, with Scots more likely than others in the rest of the UK to die from the disease because it was not detected early enough.

It was the realisation that six of his friends from the golfing world had been diagnosed with prostate cancer that made super-fit Moultrie ask his doctor for a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test which showed he had around twenty times the levels deemed normal. MRI scans and biopsy tests confirmed he had prostate cancer.

“It was back in June 2023, and I had none of the usual symptoms, so I was asked why I wanted the PSA test,” Moultrie recalled. “I’m glad I insisted as the earlier the cancer is detected the better your chance of surviving it.

“I must commend all the NHS staff that have been dealing with me during my treatment. They have been brilliant.

“The same goes for my fitness trainer Gil Stevenson, who has been a tower of strength.”

A well-known and respected member of the Scottish Seniors Golfing Society, Moultrie has had the backing of his fellow golfers and with their help sped by his personal £5,000 target for fundraising for Prostate Cancer UK by running the London Marathon – he has previously completed the London Marathon three times some years ago, and at the age of now turning 60 in September, it is also testament to his mental approach from which being a Pilates teacher has been a huge advantage.

With the Marathon being held on the 21^{st of} April this year the Golf season was just about to start with the Scottish Seniors Tour starting off their season in early May up at Fraserburgh Golf Club to the North of Aberdeen.

Due to the rigours of the previous few months and not being able to play or practice in the lead up to the Golf season, Paul decided not to play the first Order of Merit event at Fraserburgh as he was still weak, and he wanted to give his wrist a more time to recover before playing competitive golf again.

Paul did however play in the second event of the Scottish Seniors Tour at Strathmore a couple of weeks later – shooting a commendable first round of even par 72, and followed this with a 78 due to his wrist injury flaring up with pain and causing him to struggle to hit good shots. Following on at the next event at Montrose Paul admits he wasn’t feeling great and was struggling with weakness during the first day on route to shooting 79(+8) – things were harder for Paul here as he was paired with two of the Seniors’ biggest hitters in Robert Jenkins and Alan Cameron. He felt like he shouldn’t even be there as he was so far behind these guys off the tee which in turn made him feel even worse.

That night Paul decided that he should either go home and forget about competing this season or he could go out tomorrow and give 100%, and try and just hit the ball ‘as hard’ as he could. After 14 holes of the second round, he found himself 4 under par and just about in contention in the tournament – unfortunately tiredness caught up with him, and he dropped 4 shots from there for a 71(eve) but even though gave him a huge confidence boost.

Exhaustion once again beat him at the next event at Edzell Golf Club resulting in a poor finish and no OoM points.

The turning point to Paul’s season however came after a few weeks of rest, when he tee’d it up at the Scottish Seniors Open Amateur Strokeplay Championship at Moray Golf Club in Lossiemouth.

Feeling better with his health he set out on the practice round with his good friend Mike Wilson but unfortunately Paul wasn’t playing well at all - this time though it was just due to poor form.

The pair were having a friendly match, with Mike being 3 up after only 5 holes, when Paul asked Mike if there was anything he could notice which he was doing to cause his poor play. After Mike’s suggestion was that his grip was the problem – which would require a slight change in his right hand position on the club - the Paul Moultrie we know was back in town. With a more neutral right-hand grip, Paul then proceeded to cover the remainder of the round in 6 under par around the testing Lossiemouth Links to win the match, much to Mike’s dismay!

From there Paul went on to finish fourth in the ‘Scottish’ which is one of the Major events of the year and earning some valuable Order of Merit points shooting 71, 76 and a fantastic final round of 69, and the position of “Top Scot”. Incidentally Paul had finished runner up for the previous 3 years in a row in the Scottish Open Strokeplay and now added a fourth place to that tally.

On to the British Seniors Open Strokeplay Championship at the very testing East and West courses at Saunton Golf Club in North Devon.

Shooting an opening round of 75(+4) he was still very much still in the tournament, but a new problem was emerging.

A severe pain in his right knee was starting to become a problem for Paul, and after everything else he had gone through this was the last thing he needed.

After signing his card, he headed into the town to the local Tesco and loaded up with anti-inflammatories, paracetamol and bought a knee brace to try and alleviate the pain.

The next day was a very difficult test with a 35mph wind blowing across the tough East course. Playing through the pain, Paul shot an ‘unbelievable’ round of 69(-2) which catapulted him up the leaderboard and he found himself out in the leaders’ group for the third round.

In continuing strong winds Paul shot a 3^rd round 78 which still left him in the hunt. A final round of 74 saw him finish a very credible tied eighth position, and tied Top Scot with former Scottish Champion and Scotland Team mate Ronnie Clark.

Gaining some excellent Order of Merit points in the process and following up his good showing at ‘The British’ – Paul made a massive breakthrough for his season with his first win of the Year at Stranraer and then followed that up (still wearing the knee brace) with a tied fifth place at Cardross.

Still in a lot of pain with his knee, Paul was struggling to walk around the Golf course but was still determined to compete, and so onto the Scottish Matchplay Championship at Strathmore.

Paul manged to reach the semi finals losing to eventual winner John Mathers before finding out through an MRI scan, that he had been playing with fractured knee all this time – so in summary he had played in his last 4 tournaments with a stress fracture in his knee, whilst finishing T8, 1, T4 and 5th. All down to Paul’s resolute attitude to keep playing through the pain - quite incredible.

Now sitting at the top of the Scottish Seniors Order of Merit after the Matchplay Championship and with just one more counting event to go at Hamilton – things were in the balance as to who would end up winning the coveted title. With several permutations possible between four players – Stewart Henderson, Robert Jenkins, David Thompson and Paul, any one of them could mathematically win – but in the end with Steven Armstrong winning at Hamilton, a T15th finish was good enough to secure the Order of Merit title for Paul.

With the Order of Merit title in the bag, Paul was now in the position of being an automatic pick for the Scottish Men’s International Team to play in the European Team Championships in Bulgaria. Along with Robert Jenkins, Ronnie Clark, Stewart Henderson, Brian Innes and Derek Paton they finished in 7^th place in Bulgaria, with Paul managing to contribute with his scores counting in the qualifying stage.

Finally, to the Senior Home international matches at Castlerock Golf Club in Northern Ireland. Now suffering from a heavy cold, Paul and his playing partner John Mathers managed to secure two and a half from a potential three points in the foursomes. Rested for the singles match with Ireland, a halved singles match against England, and unfortunately a 2&1 loss against Wales, saw three points from a possible five.

With a year that began with a cancer diagnosis and the gruelling treatments that followed to breaking a wrist, training for and running in the London Marathon to then breaking his knee… yet none of this deterred the Iron Man Paul Moultrie from digging so deep to go on and perform on the golf course, to a level which was not only excellent in anyone’s normal golfing year, but to excel beyond even his own expectations to win the Scottish Seniors Order of Merit title and then represent his country with distinction in both the Senior Men’s European Championships and also the Senior Home International matches.

With an arrangement to continue to raise money and awareness for Prostate Cancer UK by doing online golf fitness and flexibility classes with his business Mind Body Golf and donating money from this to Prostate Cancer UK – Paul Moultrie is certainly an Inspiration.

Congratulations and Happy 60^th Birthday Paul – Well Done.

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