Feeling the game of golf
Published 8:52 pm Monday, August 16, 2010
Ed Brown lines up his tee shot on the 15th hole Monday at Valley Grande Golf Course. Brown is legally blind.--Brian Tynes photo
VALLEYGRANDE — Ed Brown stands at the tee box and hits the longest shot his 86-year-old arms can muster.
“Be right,” he yells, “BE RIGHT!”
He might swear if it’s not, but 17 out of 18 times, it was.
Brown has macular degeneration, an eye disorder that affects the center of the retina and causes blurred vision, and was diagnosed as being legally blind four year ago so someone will tell him the yardage of a hole and whether it has a dogleg.
Only when he’s on the green can he actually see where the ball goes, but he knows if the ball will “be right” because his 62 years of experience have given him the ability to feel every shot.
“I can feel if I pull it, it just feels that way to me,” Brown said. “Once I get down to about 9 or 10 feet, I can see that little black hole. It just runs me crazy.”
Brown can see the shadows of trees to the left and right of the fairway, so he tries to split the middle, where he doesn’t see anything.
“I only got in trouble once. I was under that tree on that little short hole,” Brown said, referring to his tee shot on the 15th hole, which ended up underneath a tree where he was unable to take a full backswing. He shot out of the rough, and scored double bogey.
Master Games board member Ronnie Floyd drove Brown’s cart was in and gave him his length from the hole, described the location of bunkers and sizes of the greens and drove down a couple of the longer holes before he teed off to get a view of the green.
“I don’t see how he does it,” Floyd said. “He’s a testament that people can keep doing whatever they want to do no matter how old they are,”
Brown said he has shot his age 617 times, and he was five shots under it Monday in the Masters Games at Valley Grande Golf Course to win the 85 and older division.
Brown topped Bob Baker, who is also 86 and was the only other golfer in the age bracket, by one shot, and beat several others in the younger divisions, including one player in the 55-59 group.
“He outdrove me every time,” Baker said. “He’s a much better golfer than I am.”
Brown, who lives in Montgomery, has won 170 tournaments in his lifetime and has shot a hole-in-one 21 times.
He finished fifth, fourth, third and second in the Alabama Golf Association state championship in his younger days, missing the title by one stroke.
He’s also qualified for the national Senior Olympics to be held next year in Houston, and he plans to be there.
He never considered giving up golf, despite not being able to see a bunker or effectively read a green.
“I made up my mind I was going to keep playing,” Brown said. “As long as I’m still alive and I’m able to I’m going to play.”
