Blind golfer speaks to Brunswick Rotary Club about his experiences

BRUNSWICK — Mark Arnold, a blind golfer, talked to members of the Brunswick Rotary Club about himself and his experiences with the sport during the club's meeting Thursday. Arnold is a lifelong resident of Medina County and worked at the Medina County Career Center by teaching at-risk students. He has Stargardt's disease, which is a form of juvenile macular degeneration. It started around the fourth grade and by about sixth grade, he was legally blind. Arnold said he has always been athletic, and his father was a golfer himself. "He taught me how to play golf, when most of his friends probably thought, 'What in the world is he doing, teaching him how to play golf?' " he said. When he was younger, he could see the golf ball relatively well at his feet, but his vision has continued to deteriorate over the years. He quit the sport for a while after a drop in his performance until he found out about blind golf in the early 2000's. Blind golf is played in three different categories based on sight level, he said. This ranges from completely blind to vision that is 20/200 and cannot be corrected. Arnold competes in the B-2 division, which is for those whose vision is less than 20/600 to those who can recognize shapes like a hand. "(Totally blind golfers are) some of the most unbelievable athletes I've ever met in my entire life," he said. Blind golf is a team sport where a coach helps guide the golfer. This can be done through describing the hole, orienting the club head behind the ball and more. "If we win the tournament, the coaches win the exact same trophies or medals that we do," he said. "It is truly the ultimate team sport because we can't play without our coaches." Arnold is also the co-director of the nonprofit American Blind Golf. Through tournaments, almost $1.5 million has been raised for charity this year. "Our business model, if you will, is two things," he said. "We wanted to provide quality competition for our members and we did not want to be a charity. We wanted to raise funds for charity." Subgroup Ohio Blind Golf raises funds for charities like the Wounded Warrior Project and the Student Adaptive Technology Program, which provides visually impaired students with technology such as Braille displays. Arnold said this technology is expensive but needed for students. "There's never been a better time to be a blind or severely visually impaired person because technology has made our lives unbelievable," he said. In June, a tournament called "The Ryder Cup of Blind Golf" was played in Wadsworth where Canadian and American blind golfers competed against each other. This event was organized by American Blind Golf and Ohio Blind Golf. Ultimately, America won back the cup because a completely blind golfer sank the last putt on the final match. "People that play (golf), they are the ones that truly can appreciate how difficult and actually how unbelievable at times how well (blind) people can play because they know how difficult the game is when you can see," Arnold said. Contact reporter Madisyn Woodring at (330) 721-4049 or mwoodring@medina-gazette.com.