Offbeat News

Sheila Drummond didn’t need to see her hole-in-one. She heard it. Drummond, blinded by diabetes 26 years ago, experienced the highlight of her golfing career Sunday, recording an ace on the 144-yard, par-3 fourth hole at Mahoning Valley Country Club.

Playing with her husband and coach, Keith, and two friends in a steady rain, the 53-year-old Drummond hit a driver on the hole. The shot cleared a water hazard, flew between traps and landed on the green, where it hit the flagstick before dropping into the hole.

“They were saying, ‘It’s a great shot,’ and then I heard it hit the pin,” Drummond said.

“For a hole-in-one, you have to hit it onto the green, so it’s a little bit of skill and a lot of luck.”

In 1999, Golf Digest said the odds of an amateur getting a hole-in-one are 1 in 12,750. That number, no doubt rises, for a blind golfer.

Drummond is a member of the board of directors of the United States Blind Golfers Association, and the organization believes she is the first totally blind female to record a hole-in-one.

“We’ve looked everywhere, and haven’t been able to find anyone else,” she said.

Drummond took up golf about 15 years ago, and three years later qualified as the first female member of the USGBA.

“I just try to do the best I can,” said Drummond, who carries a 48 handicap with the USGBA. “I get nervous.

“But I wasn’t nervous (Sunday), I just don’t like playing in the rain.”

Source: Associated Press

Editor’s Response:

This is simply amazing. I don’t know how many of you golf but I have never hit a hole-in-one and I have 20/20 vision. Further more one course I play on has a par-2 hole! I guess the handicap don’t always need a handicap when golfing. I’m not sure how anyone could sink a shot like that without the use of their eyes, if this is not a course she played regularly I would be truly stunned. Even if it is, this is no small feat. I had to post this up, it doesn’t fit in with the usual funny articles but it is quite shocking, and definitely a bit off-beat.

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