EDGA PROFILE: NICKY WEEKS – Ladies European Tour

“I literally phoned my boss from the hospital and told him that I was having a brain scan, but would be back to work in a few days. I was blissfully unaware.”

Nicky Weeks – tough love and second chances

Written by EDGA

“Crikey, he’s trying to sell me something here, I’m being taken for a ride.” These were the thoughts of former amateur jockey Nicky Weeks. In fact, Nicky’s suspicion was raised simply as a result of the encouragement she was receiving from a golf professional during her first golf lesson, almost 25 years ago. 

An accountant by qualification Nicky, from Guildford in the south of England, has an invisible disability and has lived with Multiple Sclerosis for some 14 years. Back then, her experience with Alan, the golf professional at Windlesham Golf Club was in part the result of her realisation that perhaps something a bit tamer than hanging onto a horse travelling at 40 miles an hour, and with the potential of falling off and hurting herself badly, might be a good idea. 

“A friend of mine, Sharon whose partner was a professional golf caddy, suggested that I give golf a go, and recommended that I had a lesson before doing anything else. So I went and remember Alan getting quite excited. I was thinking, what is he excited about?” 

Nicky had always had an interest in sport and physical fitness. Following school, she had played hockey, and of course, she needed plenty of strength and power to control her horse as it sped across the turf. So it is no surprise that the then 27-year-old had enough physical literacy to be able to swing the club and make a decent enough contact with the ball. “I’m not saying I’m a great golfer by any stretch, but I think I’d made a good beginner. I think that the professional saw in me the ability to go on, to improve, and not just stay static. He was a really big influence on me starting to play golf. Every time I walked away from the lesson, I felt really buoyed and quite happy with how I was progressing.” Nicky played for a few years and managed to squeeze the game into her busy schedule, playing here and there when time allowed. 

Nicky, who had been studying for her final examinations to become a qualified accountant, unexpectedly started to feel changes in her body. “My arm was really aching, but I thought that was because it was on a day when I had been writing a lot. Then over the weekend, my face went numb, my leg went numb, my whole arm was numb. It basically affected…