Gary Hurley was beaming with pride when he saw his name at the top of the leaderboard at the CIRCA Cape Town Open after taking more than a year away from golf as he continues to battle a rare nerve injury called parsonage turner syndrome.
Hurley, who made the cut on his first start since 2024 last week, looked like his old self as he fired two eagles in a seven-under 65 to grab a share of the early lead at Royal Cape Golf Club.
Parsonage turner syndrome (brachial neuritis) is a neurological condition that causes sudden and severe pain in your shoulder and upper arm. The pain can last from a few days to a few weeks. Muscle weakness in your shoulder, arm, forearm or hand then follows the pain. The weakness can last for several months. For Hurley, the condition still plagues him over 12 months later.
“I’ll be honest. I wasn’t coming here three weeks ago,” the 33-year-old said after his round. “I didn’t play much golf in November, December. I went to Spain and really struggled with my shoulder. Last December (2024) I woke up one day and couldn’t lift up my arm, six weeks later saw a specialist and she said I have parsonage turner syndrome which is where the immune system attacks your spinal accessory nerve which controls how you move your arm and shoulder.”
Professional golf has been a turbulent journey for Hurley whose mental health struggles in the past have left him on the brink of quitting the game. A brief return to form saw him move from the Alps Tour to the DP World Tour in 2022 before losing his card the season after.
On his last venture to South Africa two years ago, he found himself in contention again but unsure whether he was going to continue his playing career. His battle with parsonage turner syndrome left him in that dark place again.
“In September, I was waiting for it to recover, it takes so long I will never be 100% and I decided I’m not waiting anymore and I started looking at other things and not continuing to play golf and when I did that things started to get a little better, some blue skies showing,” he admits.
“I still struggled with it and it was only three weeks ago I was working with my coach and we figured out how to load the shoulder a bit differently. It’s still the same but doesn’t seem to cause me pain anymore which is great.”
It’s very early in the season, only the first round of the second event to be exact, but Hurley has really enjoyed his first five rounds of 2026 as he puts his right shoulder to the ultimate test over the next three weeks.
“It’s really nice to be here and I’m delighted. I was hitting the ball really nicely before I came here and I hadn’t played in over a year so I was trying not to get too excited over how I was playing so it was nice to feel the emotions today. I knew it was a good score so I’m really proud of myself how I am dealing with it all because it wasn’t so long ago that I wasn’t going to play at all now it’s OK.
“Shoulder is working at 40% compared to my left side. Maybe other muscles are kicking in and working harder. The physios are laughing at me like it’s my party trick because my scapula jumps everywhere when I lift my arm up but it’s not really affecting too much speed and it’s about managing it. My plan to see is if I can get through four events in a row, I haven’t done enough to see if fatigue is an issue so far so good.”
As for his opening round in Cape Town on Thursday Hurley started nicely in the gale force conditions with two birdies in his first five holes before he hit a hybrid and 5-iron to 7-feet to set up an eagle on the par-5 7th.
He eagled the 11th after rolling in from 30-feet and birdied the next. His dominance of the par fives continued with a birdie at 16 and he wasn’t downbeat at all over bogeying the last as he saw his name alongside English trio Sam Hutsby, Will Enefer, Tom Lewis and local boy Louis Albertse at the top of the leaderboard.
“I’m very pleased, I played very nicely today because it was very windy. Very happy with where my game is at and it’s a nice start,” said Hurley.
“It was really gusty, I had a short putt on 16 it was only about a foot I would say and I backed off because the wind almost blew me over and I could see the ball oscillating. I had three shots in a row into the wind which did the same thing, spinning up into the air which I haven’t seen for a while. It must have been stronger than what we thought, just have to trust it I suppose.”
Hurley has been enjoying some Irish company and perhaps his low round means he won’t have to foot the bill for the steaks tonight!
“Cape Town is great, I like South Africa, staying in the same hotel with James (Sugrue) and Conor (Purcell) and we have steak every night because it’s really good value and very big portions so we are taking advantage of that as much as we can.”
It’s been a positive day for the Irish overall with Conor Purcell sharing 22nd place on four-under.
Purcell carded seven birdies overall including three in his last four holes of a back nine which had just one par.
Max Kennedy also started well with a three-under 69 while Liam Nolan is one-under after a 70.
James Sugrue’s season debut fizzled out after a bright start as he signed for a 74.
Scoring HERE
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