Playing for a cause

As Barbados joins the rest of the world in commemorating World Sight Day on October 10, one local charity aimed at raising awareness of a rare eye condition will be introducing visually impaired Barbadians to another sporting option.

Keratoconus Barbados, a charity officially launched earlier this year, will be hosting its inaugural golf tournament at the Barbados Golf Club as a fund-raising activity, in which they will be introducing Barbadians to blind golf.

President of Keratoconus Barbados, Roseann Myers, stated that, “There are over 500 golfers who are legally blind and registered with the International Blind Golf Association, and there are many others who are playing. Two of them will be here in Barbados to introduce us to the concept in 2019, and we hope to have more, including representatives from the US and UK Blind Golfers Association, here in 2020, and we would like them to experience some of the other golf courses on the island.”

The game differs from “regular golf” in that it is played in teams, with the visually impaired person as the player and a sighted guide or coach, who helps him or her in terms of aligning themselves with the ball, telling them the direction in which to hit the ball, and when it comes to putting, guiding them relating to the direction and distance of the ball from the hole.

Blind golf first came about in the United States after Clint Russell from Duluth, Minnesota, lost his eyesight when a vehicle tyre exploded in his face in 1924. The following year, he took up playing blind golf and by the end of that decade he had done extremely well in the sport.

In 1932 he was featured in the comic strip “Ripley’s Believe It or Not!” as the world’s only blind golfer, but six years later, Ripley’s featured another such player, Dr Beach Oxenham, from London, England. In pointing out the discrepancy, some of Russell’s friends got Ripley’s to sponsor a tournament between the two men, which Russell won in 1938. Interest in the sport developed from then, and in 1946, Russell contacted the Veterans Administration and encouraged them to use blind golf as therapy for military men who had lost their sight during the then recently concluded Second World War (1939-45). They agreed, and the VA still offers this service.

The United States Blind Golf Association was founded in 1953, and the International Blind Golf Association in 1998. There are associations in 18 countries and every two years a world championship takes place.

Myers said, “The tournament is intended to raise BDS $100,000, raise awareness of keratoconus and put an interesting twist to the golf game by linking World Sight Day sensitivities to vision impairment to the sport.”

Keratoconus is a progressive eye condition that affects the cornea of the eye which results in the cornea forming a cone-like shape. While no statistics are available as to the exact number of people with the condition, the incidence in Barbados seems to be quite high, and it tends to start when people are in their early teens. The condition results in blurred vision and sensitivity to light, and glasses are ineffective in dealing with it. If not treated urgently, or is diagnosed incorrectly, it can lead to blindness.

The funds raised from the tournament, Myers said, “will assist children identified with the condition in receiving surgery, which helps to correct it, purchase additional screening equipment for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital and for research.”