BLIND GOLFER

Opotiki News, Volume I, Issue 83, 12 September 1938, Page 1

BLIND GOLFER

VISIT PAiD TO AMERICA PRESENT HANDICAP OK 20 W. .11, J. Oxeiiham, a 43-year-old blin.i goner, ol London and Hove, lias aeci pied an invitation to demonstrate ms s', ill in America. Oxen ham, a doctor oi osteopathy, lelt •J'Jugland last month with his '• secretary-wile and eadciie-eliaitlleur. !-.:<• will ho four or five weeks in A-uieri-a and Canada, when he will broadcast play in exhibition matches, possibly with Walter Hagen and Gene Sarnzen, and go “Sightseeing.’’ AH proceeds of the matches are to be given to blind charities. Until five years ago Oxonham had never even handled a golf club. lie •started to play by accident; now bis handicap is 20: ‘•| went with ni.v wife to visit a doctor friend in Tunbridge Wells,” lie told a newspaper representative, “The doctor was out on the golf course. L said : ‘7 should like to have a crack at that hall.’ We went on the firsttee. The hole was bogey four. I hit the ball a real snnick,er, was oil the green for two, down in four. “After playing 12 months I got my present handicap of 20. I have been round in. 83 and 85 several times. .V few days ago I played in a two-ball foursome, my partner and I going round in 84, 42 out and 32 in, “How do I play? Well, golf is merely perfect timing and balance and a. little hick. You wouldn’t bqlieve it. but one of mv worse faults is the same as that of most I lilt mv head.”