King’s Forest is hosting Blind Golf championship
For many of us who struggle to have any level of proficiency in golf it’s virtually unimaginable to be blind and good at it.
There are great blind golfers, however, and over the years the Hamilton area has been home to a number of them.
The late Claude Pattemore is in the Canadian Golf Hall of Fame for his accomplishments. Nick Genovese, who died in 2005, never got quite the spotlight that Claude did but was equally proficient in the sport. Between them they won 18 Canadian Blind Golfers Championships and 33 Ontario titles.
So it should probably be no surprise that the Ontario Championship is held regularly at Chippewa Creek and that Blind Golf Canada and the Ontario Visually Impaired Golfers association has chosen to bring the Canadian Championship to Hamilton.
It will be played Aug. 15-16 at King’s Forest and will be followed on the 17th with a fundraising tournament at Chedoke with the proceeds going to help blind juniors get into the sport.
“For the Canadian Championships we have players from all over Canada and the United States as well as two from Italy and one from Ireland,” says Rick Kush, who is a competitor as well as being on the organizing committee.
“There will be competition in three divisions, totally blind, five-per-cent vision and 10-per-cent vision, which is the legal threshold for blindness.”
The tournament is sponsored by Boston Pizza, Montanas, the CNIB, local Lions Clubs and with support from the City of Hamilton
Organizers are still looking for volunteers to help out as scorers and they are also encouraging spectators to come out and get a feel for what golf for the blind is all about.
Kush says the only significant rules differences is that blind golfers are allowed to ground their clubs in sand traps and have a coach to line them up.
Organizers are also looking for golfers to play in the fundraiser on the 17th. For $100 you get golf, with a cart, lunch and dinner and you’ll get a chance to play with a blind golfer and see first hand what amazing athletes they are. If you’d like to enter the fundraising tournament or volunteer to help in the Canadian Championship you can contact Kush at rick.kush@agr.gc.ca or call him at 519-4003719.
This past weekend marked the beginning of club championship season at area golf clubs.
At King’s Forest they were literally down to the final holes on Monday before the skies opened up. After a lengthy delay organizers went out with squeegees to clear the 18th green to get finished.
Walter Wiebe won with a three-round total of 224, two better than John Bowker.
Bill Pope won B-Flight in a one-hole playoff over Jim Poling. Russ Hunt captured C-Flight. At Southbrook Oliver Hunt won both the overall men’s and junior’s club championships. Shelly Mayo won the ladies title while Jim Banyard took senior men’s and John Horrocks captured super senior.
WHOLE-IN-ONE: Aces in the area include two at Willow Valley, Ron Jeffery from 102yards with an eight iron on the 15th and Luc Warnock from 167 yards with an eight iron on 17. There were also two singletons on the sixth hole of the Gold Eagle nine at Chippewa Creek; Paul Coughlin from 127 yards with a nine iron and Brian Maragno from 144 yards with an eight iron. Glenn Souter aced the 14th hole at Southbrook with a five iron.