In the face of adversity, there can often be humour. “My first tourn-ament after I lost my leg, I played with a man who also had one leg but also had only three fingers,” recalled the disabled Swedish golfer Caroline Mohr.

“He scored 75 easily but wasn’t pleased and told me, ‘I think I’ve got too many moving parts in my swing’.”

Mental fortitude and the ability to keep smiling has always been a valuable virtue in this fickle, flummoxing pursuit.

The well-spouted observation from the great Bobby Jones about golf being played “mainly on a five-and-a-half-inch course, the space between your ears” remains sage advice that can be applied across the golfing spectrum, whether you are Tiger Woods or a crude amateur hacker who is always guddling about in the woods. For those with a disability, it is very much a case of mind over matter.

Golf has always taken its fair share of brickbats. Some of those pelters have been justified – issues around sexism, for instance, have burdened the game for years. But others – such as the notion that this Royal & Ancient game is riddled with exclusivity – are simply the results of lazy assumptions and cliched perceptions.

“Golf certainly takes the heat a lot of the time for being an exclusive game, but ironically, it could be the most inclusive game of all because we have people with all kinds of disabil-ities competing together,” says Tony Bennett, the PGA-qualified professional who is also the president of the European Disabled Golf Association (EDGA).

“One in seven people in the world is disabled and many of those people have an unseen disability. So when we look at that figure, we all know people who have been affected by disability. It’s just a genuine part of our society and we should embrace it.”

Golf’s powers-that-be continue to do that in a market that has a huge potential for growth.

While the R&A have been active in promoting disabled golf, the European Tour have thrown their weight behind the push to get the sport in the Paralympics with the launch of their Golfers with Disability programme.

Over the course of the next few months, some of the game’s best disabled golfers will get to showcase their talents at two of the European Tour’s biggest events.

On the Saturday and Sunday of the Scottish Open at the Renaissance, a 36-hole competition involving 10 players will be held before the touring professionals themselves head out.

The same will happen at the season-ending DP World Tour Champ ionship in Dubai with eight contestants competing. The disabled golfers will play on the same course and off the same tees. Television exposure will be on the same world feed.

“We certainly believe golf should be a Paralympic sport and we are committed to doing that,” said the European Tour chief executive, Keith Pelley.

Mohr, a young Swede who had professional ambitions on the Ladies European Tour, is one of the many disabled golfers featured in the book, “Mulligan – tough love and second chances”, which documents a series of sobering yet ultimately uplifting, against-the-odds stories.

In 2011, Mohr emerged unscathed from the devastating Christchurch earthquake in New Zealand – “I was just running, running, running,” she said of her flight from a crumbling building – but a few weeks later she was diagnosed with an aggressive form of bone cancer which led to her leg being amputated. Golf would give her a focus and a purpose. “Golf really gave me my life back,” she said.

It has for many others covered in the book too. Jes Hogh, the former Danish footballer who was an FA Cup winner with Chelsea and represented his country at a World Cup and two European Championships, suffered a devastating stroke in 2007. The ravages to both body and mind were considerable. The love for golf, and its restorative powers, remained undiminished.

“There is something about going to the course around eight in the evening to play a few holes alone,” he says of golf’s soothing tranquillity.

The tour launched the disability drive during last month’s British Masters at Hillside with Paul Waring, a winner on the European circuit last season, contesting the Pro-Am in the company of three leading disabled golfers.

“I can’t go and have a kick around with [Lionel] Messi playing his best football or stand over the net with Roger Federer and have a competitive game of tennis,” he said. “But I can play against a 95-year-old in golf and I can play against a disabled person, whatever their skills. That’s the way the handicap system works and the nature of the sport. You can have a competitive game with whoever plays.”

This great pursuit that Scotland gave to the world remains a game for all.