They live in different countries and speak different languages, but Tiia Koivisto and Hannah McCook have built a friendship based on their common experience of forging a golf career whilst dealing with Type 1 diabetes.
Neither golfer has let the condition hold them back, but they have been able to share their journey and overcome obstacles together.
“It’s nice to talk with Hannah about diabetes, because she knows how I feel and she knows the struggles sometimes, so it’s nice to share it with somebody,” said Tiia, the 27th ranked player on the LET’s Race to Costa del Sol.
The 26-year-old from Mantsala in southern Finland was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes at 11 years old, whereas 26-year-old Hannah, from Grantown-on-Spey, was told at the age of eight, when she thought her sporting ambitions would be over, until she was inspired by the feats of five-time Olympic gold medallist Sir Steve Redgrave.
“I didn’t know anything about it and thought I would have to stop sport but my parents found out that Sir Steve Redgrave was diabetic and so I thought, that’s fine. I’ll keep going then!” she said.
Hannah was a beginner golfer and a keen skier at the time of her diagnosis, becoming Scottish Schools champion in Slalom downhill skiing in her first year at secondary school, but she chose golf due to the more affordable price-point and accessibility. Tiia has been a golfer from the age of 14 and so has dealt with diabetes from the start.
Type 1 diabetes causes the level of glucose (sugar) in your blood to become too high, which happens when you can’t produce enough insulin and in the past, it would have required daily injections to keep blood glucose levels under control, but both Tiia and Hannah use insulin pumps throughout the day and on the course.
“If my blood sugars go up and down I feel tired and don’t have much energy. The first tee during a tournament, it can go up fast because of the adrenaline,” Tiia said. “At the end of the round it’s coming down really fast so sometimes I feel really tired there. Sometimes I can feel it in the muscles and they don’t feel that strong. They say you shouldn’t do any exercise if your blood sugar is over 15, but I can’t do anything about that. I can put more insulin but it really doesn’t help. I just have to wait and after four or five holes it gets back to normal.
“When I have low blood sugar, around 3, I can barely hit the ball and I can miss the ball as your head is in a fog, so I try to avoid a low blood sugar situation and it can be a struggle but there are a lot worse things that you can have and I can still play professional golf with it.”
Hannah said: “Some days its fine and some days it’s not fine. On tour, definitely the stress and the nerves and the pressure affects it. It bothers me a little bit but in a way it takes my mind off golf sometimes because you’re concerned about how you are physically. I try not to think about it because I could be in a lot worse situations and I’m fortunate it’s only diabetes. At the same time, you have to think more about certain things like blood sugars when you tee off, during the round and then what you should be eating. Overall it’s not a hindrance because I can still do the same things as what everyone else is doing.”
Both players had decent starts to the year. Hannah, who is ranked tied for 51st on the Race to Costa del Sol, shared 22nd position in the Investec South African Women’s Open, while Tiia started out with a tie for 11th in the Geoff King Motors Australian Ladies Classic and tied for 25th in South Africa.
“I have been working with my current golf coach, Tommi Henttu, for five years now. Before that I was struggling to make cuts in national amateur tournaments. I’m pretty happy about my improvement over the past five years and a lot of credit goes to him,” Tiia said.
While the players share a bond, they have had very different experiences during the coronavirus lockdown period.
“We have been pretty lucky here because all the golf courses have been open all the time. I have been able to practise and play throughout,” said Tiia, adding that the Finnish golf tour will resume next week. “We only have around 100 people in the hospital and they are opening everything on 1st June, so we have been really lucky.”
Scottish golf courses have been closed for around 10 weeks but are expected to re-open from tomorrow.
