The blind leading the ‘blind’
It really was a case of the blind leading the ‘blind’ at Crown Isle golf course.
For the first time, the annual Western Canadian Blind Golf Association Golf Championship was being staged there.
The prestigious contest has attracted 24 leading blind and partially-sighted players from Canada and the United States, 21 of them from outside B.C.
The event was organized and hosted by the Comox Valley Monarch Lions Club.
To get the competition off to a high-profile start, dignitaries including local MLA Don McRae, Courtenay Mayor Greg Phelps, and the Mayor of Comox, Paul Ives, were invited along to welcome the visitors to the Valley and wish them good luck.
But it was the civic leaders themselves who were more in need of luck when they were asked to have a go themselves, wearing blackout spectacles so they couldn’t see the ball.
In blind golf, even the top competitors need a bit of help in lining things up, so are briefed by a coach before each shot.
The same benefit was offered to the three guests with varying degrees of success – or, more generally, lack of it.
Despite their helpers’ best efforts, just hitting the ball turned out to be something of a challenge, although in the end all managed to get in shots of sorts.
And all were happy to enter the spirit of the occasion, laughing at the outcomes of their best efforts.
Lions co-chair Ron Webber also stepped forward in a bid to demonstrate the technique, but managed to miss at all three of his attempts while wearing the spectacles.
But blind golfer Vince Hooper from Texas was certainly able to explain how it should be done, having completed all 18 holes on a practice round the day before in 78.
And competitor Brian MacLeod from Nova Scotia demonstrated his perfect swing as an inspiration to all the onlookers and their civic guests.
The competition is held in B.C. once every four years, and Western Canadian Blind Golf Association president Doug Penner of Manitoba said they were delighted to be at Crown Isle.
“It’s a lovely course, a gorgeous course,” he commented. “It has some nasty bunkers to add to the challenge.”
The other Lions co-chair, Bob Scales, said the club was proud to be sponsoring the two-day competition that culminated in an awards banquet on Wednesday night.
Other activities in the week included a barbecue and entertainment on Monday evening, and a seafood feast with traditional dancing at the K’ómoks First Nation on Tuesday.
At the start of the event, Andy Everson of the K’ómoks Band, dressed in traditional costume, carried out a blessing of the course on which the competition was to take place.
During the week, the Monarch Lions also hosted a meeting for golfers who were members of other Lions Clubs.
He thanked several organizations that had actively supporting the Monarchs in hosting of the competition, including the Lions Clubs of Comox Valley, Black Creek and Royston-Cumberland, the B.C. Blind Sports and Recreation Association, Comox Valley Chamber of Commerce, the Coast Realty Group and Crown Isle Resort itself.
http://www.canada.com/blind+leading+blind/1800811/story.html
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