A fortunate change of plans

It is difficult to picture Golfing World’s Iona Stephen as a woebegone figure sitting in a supermarket car park wondering what on earth she should do with her life. Yet go back four years and that is precisely where she was.
Stephen, who is currently excelling in her capacity as a TV commentator, had set her heart on making it as a top tour professional when an ongoing wrist problem forced a halt to her aspirations. There had been a niggle in the wrist before she made her professional debut in the LET’s 2016 Qatar Masters. However, when it was diagnosed as nothing more sinister than a cyst, she somehow expected it to disappear with the next round of treatment.
Steroid injections worked to kill the inflammation for a while, but the more injections she had, the shorter the period they knocked out the pain. The next step consisted of what Stephen described as “a very intrusive operation.” It went well and she poured her all into 10 months of rehabilitation.

Sadly, nothing was any better after that.
Yet soul-destroying though it all was,...