Inspiring San Diegan Triumphs at World Blind Golf Championship

LAST YEAR AT AGE 19, Jeremy Poincenot went from 20/20 vision to legally blind in two months. Jeremy has a rare genetic disease called Leber’s Hereditary Optic Neuropathy (LHON). As you can imagine, it’s changed his life. But it hasn’t slowed him down.

A full-time college student, entrepreneur, surfer, cyclist and nationally ranked golfer from San Diego, Jeremy won the World Blind Golf Championship played in England last month. The field consisted of 60 legally blind golfers from around the world. (Watch the video to see how Jeremy, representing the United States, clinched the victory.)

Bike Ride and Marathon

Jeremy was just getting started.

Following his golf victory, he rode in the Cycling Under Reduced Eyesight (C.U.R.E.) bike ride, a four-day, 230-mile bike ride from Santa Barbara to San Diego. The goal of the bike ride was to raise awareness and funding for LHON research at USC’s Doheny Eye Institute.

Recently, Jeremy recruited a team for the San Diego VisionWalk in November. He also will be running for LHON research, an official charity of the January 2011 Carlsbad Marathon.

A nice dose of inspiration on a Thursday. If something looks too hard, try it anyway and see what happens.

−The Armchair Golfer

Sea Island Mafia Invades McGladrey Classic

THE INAUGURAL MCGLADREY CLASSIC tees off on Thursday at the 7,055-yard par-70 Seaside Course at the Sea Island Resort in Sea Island, Georgia. This coastal golf community is also the known territory of the “Sea Island Mafia,” a a group of golf mobsters who will exert their local influence on the second event in the Fall Series.

They’ve been ID’d as follows: Davis Love III, Zach Johnson, Matt Kuchar, Jonathan Byrd and Chris Kirk. They’ve made this pleasant corner of Georgia’s Golden Coast their domain. Several of them are represented by an outfit called Crown Sports Management. Love is considered to be the Godfather. They are armed with clubs and dangerous on the golf course.

(Photo: Sea Island Godfather / Keith Allison, Flickr)

Actually, Love, a longtime Sea Island resident, is the host of this week’s event. (Love and others are known as the Sea Island Mafia. I didn’t make that up.)

“The St. Simons/Sea Island area has been home for Mark and me and our families for a long time, and we’re extremely happy to support the community that means so much to us,” Love said at Golf360.

One by one, several of Love’s peers migrated to Sea Island.

Wrote Stan Awtry at PGATOUR.COM: “...many of the TOUR’s best players make their home, or second home, at Sea Island—partially because it’s a nice place to live and partially because of the unequalled practice facilities at the Sea Island Learning Center.”

Three of them—Love, Johnson and Kuchar—hustled home from the Ryder Cup to participate. One thing’s certain. Sea Island will be a much more friendly and relaxed atmosphere.

−The Armchair Golfer

My Ryder Cup Lament

THE RYDER CUP HAD a thrilling finish. For the first time since 1991 at Kiawah, the Cup was decided by the final singles match. The Americans roared back from a three-point deficit, winning seven of 12 singles matches, but Europe hung on to reclaim golf’s most cherished trophy by a half point. Both teams played with imagination, skill and passion. Congratulations to Europe. Well played, USA. You nearly won with a team that many said had no chance.

(Photo: Blue skies were rare at Celtic Manor / lhourahane, Flickr)

The Ryder Cup is the Super Bowl of golf. Hence, everything is scrutinized and many aspects of the biennial event are ridiculed, which I find tiresome. But in the end, it’s not about the uniforms or the wives and girlfriends or which captain is the best quote or rain gear or what Johnny Miller said about Phil. Those are all just carnival sideshows.

Yesterday it was as clear as that bright blue sky over Celtic Manor what the Ryder Cup is about. It’s about Europe’s 12 best going against America’s 12 best. It’s about playing for country or continent in a team competition that ends in euphoria or tears.

It’s about crushing pressure under which a 21-year-old rookie can birdie four straight holes for a half point, an Irishman can sink the biggest putt of his life in front of adoring fans, and a hero from the 2008 Ryder Cup can stab a chip shot that broke his spirit and rendered him speechless. It’s about the competition, pure and simple. There’s nothing like the Ryder Cup, especially at its best, like yesterday.

But my problem is this: Yesterday was Monday. Yesterday was a work day.

It was the first Monday finish in the 83-year history of the Ryder Cup. More than two inches of rain fell on Celtic Manor Resort in Newport, Wales, from Thursday afternoon to Sunday morning. Play was delayed and the format was changed to get in all the matches. No one can control the weather, but the powers that be do control the schedule.

As we now know, October is not a good month to stage any outdoor event in Wales. (This was the first Ryder Cup contested in October since Royal Birkdale in 1965.) It was a prolonged rain delay waiting to happen.

The BBC’s Iain Carter got to the crux of the problem:

On this side of the pond the European Tour runs the Ryder Cup and the professional schedule. In America it is different. The PGA Tour runs the schedule and a completely separate body, the PGA of America, administers the Ryder Cup.

The match is not the primary concern of the PGA Tour, which has now taken over September with its Fed Ex Cup play-off series. The PGA of America has been forced to let go the traditional weeks where Ryder Cups have been staged.

Hey, powerful golf people: Don’t mess up the Ryder Cup for all of us.

If you want to build goodwill for the game and cater to fans—fans who work on Mondays—preserve the Ryder Cup in as close to its original form as possible. Do everything you can to make sure that it ends on Sunday for the next 83 years. Samuel Ryder would appreciate that. You are using his name, after all, and talking up the wonderful traditions of the game and these matches. That, or find a corporate sponsor and call it the XYZ Cup.

Find a way to play the Ryder Cup in late September and/or where it’s highly unlikely to rain buckets. You’re smart people. You can figure it out and still make millions.

Imagine if many more golf fans—and perhaps a few casual fans who might have tuned in on Sunday—could have seen the greatest Ryder Cup in years.

−The Armchair Golfer