Six-year-old Jensen Cavanagh has had to deal with a few battles early in life and has come out swinging through an obsession with golf, as DAVID NAGEL explains.
“He started hitting balls around the greens when he was two and it’s all just developed from there. We’ve never pushed him into anything he doesn’t want to do, he just loves it.”
David Cavanagh was a little concerned – just like any parent would be – when his six-year-old son Jensen approached him with some worrying words recently.
“Dad, there’s something wrong with my head,” Jensen said
“What’s wrong mate,” David replied.
“Dad, there’s something wrong with my head…I can’t stop thinking about golf.”
David was at first relieved, then laughed and just smiled, totally aware of his son’s passion for the game that saw him play his first competition round of golf at Deep Creek Golf Club on Saturday, 1 May.
Jensen scored a respectable 18 points off a 40-handicap – quite remarkable really considering his small and tiny stature. It really is hard to believe that a body that small can propel a golf ball so far!
Jensen’s first tee shot – which sailed roughly 110 metres up the middle – went a lot more smoothly than the early stages of his young life.
He was born with under-developed kidneys that saw him have constant treatment, dialysis for up to 12 hours a day, until he received a kidney transplant at the age of two-and-a-half years old, donated by his nanna Pam.
“He’ll have to have another couple of transplants in his life, because the kidneys have a lifespan, they could last 10 years or even longer, or some last 10 months,” David explained.
It was nanna Pam that also sewed the seed for his love of the great game.
“He was obsessed with golf even before he could walk,” David said.
“His nanna threw him a plastic golf club and he started to wave it around, and then she put some balls in front of him and he would hit them all day long. He was obsessed then, and he still is now.”
Jensen hadn’t been walking long when David decided he needed to be introduced to – what you think will become his natural habitat – the golf course.
“He was hitting balls around the backyard and I thought it would be a good idea to show him a golf course and see how he goes,” David said.
“He just walked up and down the par fives out the front of the old clubhouse and hit balls. Scott Laycock (a star of Australian golf who worked at Pakenham at the time) saw him and thought it was astonishing that he loved the game so much.
“He started hitting balls around the greens when he was two and it’s all just developed from there. We’ve never pushed him into anything he doesn’t want to do, he just loves it.”
David himself was a talented cricketer who played a season in England for Bradford and made many centuries playing for clubs like South Melbourne, Chelsea and Mt Waverley. He has now been lured into a new sporting pursuit by his young son.
“It was fortunate he fell in love with golf because he can’t play contact sports,” David said.
“Just seeing how much he loves it made me have a crack as well, and now I’ve fallen in love with golf too.”
Jensen has been getting coached at Deep Creek by experienced and passionate junior golf teacher Mark Shaw, but David says the golf club has gone above and beyond to make his young boy feel at home.
“Hayden (Thompson) has been fantastic, through the Pakenham days and now at Deep Creek, letting us use the facilities and being a great support through the transplant,” David said.
“The club has made Jensen an honorary member, so he can play when he wants to play, and they made him up a small plaque, a memento, as well. They’ve got a great junior program here and that’s part of the reason why he loves it so much.
“He’s been up since 4.30 this morning, asking ‘when are we going, when are we going.”
Jensen himself could not wait to get out on the course.
“I am really, really, really excited, I couldn’t sleep because I was so excited to go, I love golf so much,” Jensen, who turned six years old on Easter Sunday, said.
“I like hitting the ball really hard and I like putting as well.
“I like watching all the golfers play but my favourite is Tiger Woods. I also like Rickie Fowler, Dustin Johnson and Phil Mickelson, and that’s all.”
Johnson is a favourite after giving Jensen the thumbs up at the most recent Presidents Cup played at Royal Melbourne in December 2019.
Jensen Cavanagh was a keen spectator at one of the biggest golfing tournaments of the year – and he was just four!
