Lexington, KY Blind Golfer Wins Title

Lexington Golfer Wins Blind Title with His Feet

Amid the excitement of the United States' recent Ryder Cup victory at Louisville's Valhalla Golf Club, and the play of Kentuckians J.B. Holmes and Kenny Perry, the remarkable national golf title won by Lexington's Tyler Thompson that same weekend drew comparatively little media notice.

Thompson, who has no central vision, limited peripheral vision and uses his feet to read the greens, overcame two double bogeys and fired a final round 81 to capture the U.S. Blind Golf Association net title for all vision-impaired players at River Bend Links in Tunica, Miss.

USBGA players compete in three categories defined by the severity of their visual impairments, from totally blind to legally blind. Thompson is in the middle, or B2, category.

When he focuses on a golf ball, literally out of the corner of his eyes, he sees the ball as an L-shaped white blur with multiple bulges that resemble those of a peanut shell. He has learned that "the ball is between the second and third nut in the peanut."

His coach said he can drive the ball over 300 yards and routinely drives beyond 250.

"I've become a much better short game player since I lost my vision than I was with my vision," Thompson said this week. "Instead of relying on my sight all the time, I now have to walk off distances and feel the contour and think more about my shot."

Each blind golfer is accompanied by a coach who assists with lining up shots and setting distance. Thompson's friend Shawn Sowell, also of Lexington, served as his coach in this year's tournament.

"As well as he hit the long ball, he putted just fantastic," said Sowell. "We probably had 15 or more one-putts. It was absolutely astounding to watch. He actually feels the slope of the green with his feet. We both walk off the yardage to the hole, and then I line him up and tell him plus or minus an eighth or quarter-degree left or right and give him the go."

During last year's championship in Philadelphia, Thompson finished fifth overall and fourth in his division.

He was an athletic youngster growing up in Virginia, but was not a golfer. Following graduation from the University of Virginia with a degree in mechanical engineering, he enjoyed a highly successful career with IBM before becoming national sales manager for a major pharmacy software technology company.

During his mid-30s, he lost central vision in his left eye because of a genetic disorder known by the acronym PXE, and several years later, lost central vision in his right eye. Now, after some 40 eye surgeries, he struggles with central darkness, severe peripheral distortion and no depth perception.

With encouragement from his wife, Jan, a physician's assistant, and their 9-year-old daughter, Alex, he joined the U.S. Blind Golf Association in his early 40s and began hanging out at local golf courses, where occasionally someone invited him to play and helped him track his ball and line up shots.

"That was the exception," said Thompson. "The vast majority didn't want to play with a blind or visually-impaired golfer. So I would spend time learning how to putt and practicing chipping."

Then he discovered a senior group called "The Short Knockers" at the Golf Club of the Bluegrass near Lexington, which welcomed him to join them for once-a-week outings at different courses. He credits The Short Knockers, his volunteer coaches and his family with helping him win the USBGA title. He spends much of his time these days volunteering to help others overcome vision impairments.

He confessed that even during breaks as he played for the blind title, he was keeping tabs on the Ryder Cup and the play of Kentuckians Holmes and Perry, whom he hopes to meet one day.

And how about a few holes of golf with the two Ryder Cup heroes?

"I'd absolutely eat that up," said Thompson. "They're really great guys. And I wouldn't be nervous at all playing with them, because they put their pants on one leg at a time just like I do."

Sure, but can they read greens with their feet?