Pain was the only thing keeping Jeffrey Guan conscious.
The young, burgeoning golf star was lying on the ground on a course in Batemans Bay unaware at what just happened.
It all occurred so fast.
One minute, Guan was preparing to hit his ball in the Pro-Am he was competing in. The next, he was sprawled on the ground as a sharp pain emanated from the left side of his face.
“I couldn’t open my eyes, and there was a bit of blood,” he recounts.
“I just wanted the pain to end. That’s all I could remember.”
Watch the 2025 Australian PGA Championship LIVE on Kayo Sports 27-30 Nov | New to Kayo? Join now and get your first month for just $1.
*****
There’s a bevy of superstars who will tee it up over the next couple of weekends, starting today at the Australian PGA Championship in Brisbane and the Australian Open in Melbourne next week.
Local heroes Min Woo Lee, Cam Smith, Adam Scott, Marc Leishman will take part in the both flagship events of the Australian summer of golf, while World No. 2 Rory McIlroy will come down under for the Australian Open in a massive coup.
But there’s another name – not nearly as well known as those listed above – who will be really easy to barrack for over the next couple of weeks, given his incredible story.
It’s one about keeping the faith when the chips are down as well as overcoming disappointment and anger when life doesn’t seem fair.
Considered one of the emerging stars on the Australian golf circuit, the then 20-year-old Guan suffered a major setback which threatened to not only derail his golfing career, but his life.
A two-time winner of the Australian Junior championship, a former winner of the Junior Players Championship at the famed TPC Sawgrass in the US and the recipient of the Cameron Smith Scholarship, Guan had the world at his feet.
Scott chasing 3rd Australian PGA title | 00:58
In September 2024, Guan had just experienced his biggest thrill in golf.
He had just competed in his first ever PGA Tour event after receiving a sponsor’s invite to the Procore Championship.
However, days after landing back in Australia, disaster struck, with Guan involved in an awful incident at a Pro-Am in Batemans Bay.
“I don’t really remember too much of what happened,” Guan told foxsports.com.au from Sydney’s The Australian Golf Club.
Guan had been struck in the face by an errant ball hit by a playing partner.
“I remember just walking up to my ball after my playing partner hit down the right side. We were playing ‘ready golf’, and I went up to hit my ball, and the next thing I know I turned around and the ball hit me,” Guan explained.
“That’s pretty much all I can really remember (from the golf course). After that I remember being airlifted to hospital and (going under) for surgery. They aren’t the best sort of memories … It was pretty tough.”
The ball had hit Guan in the left eye. He would say the “pain was the only thing” keeping him from slipping out of consciousness.
“The pain was so constant, whenever you’re doing something with it, and you can’t control it, so I just wanted to be dosed and then put in hospital.”
Jeff Guan. Photo: David Tease/Golf NSW.Source: News Corp Australia
The scary incident caused several face fractures and shattered Guan’s orbital socket. It also left him permanently blind in the left eye.
In the days following the accident and subsequent diagnosis from doctors, Guan found it hard to be positive.
He spent nearly four weeks in hospital and then had to wait another two weeks before moving back into his place.
“My house had to be tidied up because I couldn’t risk any dust or anything strange going in the eye socket,” he explained.
The story of Guan’s horrific experience reached far and wide.
Sitting in a hospital bed and dealing with an uncertain future in the sport, Guan was buoyed significantly when the hundreds of messages of support came flooding in.
Guan was not only touched by the support of the Australian golfing community, but received a huge thrill when he was sent videos by the likes of Scott, Smith, Lee and even one from one of the biggest names in world golf.
“Most of the Australian tour guys reached out. That’s the thing about our tour, it’s one of the best tours in terms of being competitive but also getting around each other as friends,” Guan said.
“Aside from that, I had a lot of the bigger names reach out like Cam Smith, Adam Scott and Min Woo (Lee).
“Even Tommy Fleetwood sent out a video. That was a video I definitely was not expecting but it all definitely helped me through my recovery.
“All those guys are so high class and so nice.”
2025 Tour Championship winner Tommy Fleetwood was one of several golfing superstars to send Jeff Guan a message of support.Source: Getty Images
When news of Guan’s injury broke and even in the weeks that followed, there was some doubt around the sport over whether the young gun would ever be able to play professionally again.
Even if he was able to compete again on the Australian tour, with no vision from one eye, how much would the setback restrict him?
With the odds against him, Guan was determined to quickly restart his career in the sport.
It would be about five months until he was able to resume light training.
Remarkably, Guan returned to professional golf in August – 11 months after the accident – teeing it up at the NT PGA Championship.
“Teeing off the first was genuinely a great feeling,” Guan told journalists after he carded a two over par 74 in the first round.
There were some jarring moments early though as Guan had to come to terms with how the injury could limit him.
He noticed his depth perception was really poor, an aspect most golfers take for granted.
While it has improved markedly in the 15 months since the accident, it’s still the main issue Guan has to deal with on the course.
“I think that was my first thing that I noticed after the surgery, that picking up a bottle was kind of hard even though it was sitting right in front of me, but I just couldn’t tell how far to reach in front or sometimes I would knock over some stuff as I’m trying to eat,” Guan explained.
“Playing golf was definitely different because you go from not being able to pick up a bottle and then you start slowly walking again and then you start seeing little bumps in the road, then the grass at that time looks flat even though it could be a massive hill. As you get better and better you start to see there’s more slopes.
“You look at the first event I played (NT PGA), I didn’t play quite well but I looked at my stats and it said my driving and my irons were not bad, but my short game putting were probably the two main areas of my game where I needed to improve on.
”Playing the first round there, it was probably my third 18 hole round since my return, so I took a lot from that from that week.
“I worked on dealing with my (lack of) depth perception with some specialists and my coach. Heading into bunkers was probably the one of the toughest things because I couldn’t see how far down my club was in relation to the sand and obviously if you touch the sand it’s a two-shot penalty.
“So, I had to work with a couple specialists for a couple hours every now and then just to work it out as well as work out with my coach just making sure every other part of my game, like putting, is getting there.
“I’ve been doing little things to try and get my right eye to be more dominant such as throwing a ball against something and catching it to gaming which uses quick movements in the eye which sort of improves it a little bit each time.”
Aussies hunting home soil PGA victory | 02:16
Guan has played in a handful of events since returning from the eye injury.
Remarkably, he fired a five-under 67 in the opening round of last week’s Queensland PGA Championship to finish day 1 near the top of the leaderboard.
Given the limitations he still has to deal with that his rivals don’t, it was a stunning performance in one of his first tournaments back.
Guan will contest both the Australian PGA Championship this weekend as well as the Aus Open in Melbourne next week.
He’ll start his tournament at Royal Queensland early on Thursday morning, teeing off in Round 1 at 7:50am AEDT.
