OWENSBORO, Ky. — Growing up, Chad NeSmith loved sports but as he grew older, he realized he was starting to have issues with his eyes.
NeSmith was eventually diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, an incurable disease that, over a number of years, left him completely blind. It wasn’t until his mid-30s that he would discover a sport that would become his passion — blind golf.
“Until I started playing blind golf and competed in my first blind golf tournament, (that) was the first time I met another blind person, and I’d been blind for 14 years. So now that I have a whole group of blind folks when we compete in golf tournaments, we don’t talk about being blind, we talk about golf,” NeSmith said.
NeSmith quickly found success in the sport. He won the United States National Blind Golf Championship in 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2021. He also will play for a fifth title at this year’s championship. In September he competed alongside North America’s best blind golfers to win the sport’s version of the Ryder Cup named the Vision Cup, besting the rest of the world’s top players for the first time.
“We were tired of losing and we were tired of hearing that the rest of the world had the best golfers in the blind community than we do so again it was just an honor to play,” NeSmith said.
However, success in blind golf is not found alone. Each golfer plays alongside a coach who helps line up the club with the ball while giving the player information they need to make the shot. NeSmith says anyone can be a coach, and you don’t have to be a pro.
“Without the coaches giving us a description, we can’t do it. I mean, it is a total team sport,” NeSmith said.
People will vary degrees of blindness are able to compete in the sport on the pro level as well. Tournaments are separated into different groups depending on the player’s ability to see. Being fully blind, NeSmith plays in the B1 category.
After winning back-to-back championships in 2016 and 2017, NeSmith says something was missing, a mission beyond himself. That led him and his family to found the nonprofit A Vision in Darkness, which gets kids involved in the sport.
“Golf is a great avenue for me, it is for a lot of other people, it needs to be for a lot more people, that’s what we are hoping comes of this is you know if we hit ten or 15 people that start picking up a golf club that would be outstanding,” NeSmith said.
An outlet like this was something NeSmith didn’t find until he was in his 30s, something AVID can help people find much sooner. Since 2017, AVID has helped over 60 kids get introduced to the sport in three states.
Recently, they’ve begun working with wounded veterans to introduce them to blind golf as well.
Through his success, NeSmith has shown the world that just because you lose your eyesight, that doesn’t mean you’ve lost the rest of your abilities.
“There are so many things that blind athletes do and blind people do,” NeSmith said.
More information about blind golf can be found here.