Blind golfers gear up for 79th USBGA Championship as elite field pursues trophies

Top names in blind golf are converging on Oak Marsh Golf Course in Oakdale, Minn., for the 79th United States Blind Golf Association championship on Sept. 17, where veterans and rising contenders will contest titles across vision classifications and rely on guides to navigate the course.

Among the favorites is Jeremy Poincenot, a 35-year-old Carlsbad, Calif., resident who learned he was losing his sight at 19 because of Leber hereditary optic neuropathy. Poincenot, a nine-time USBGA champion and the 2010 World Blind Golf champion, said his return to the game after losing vision began with a Christmas present from his father, Lionel, who continued to hand him golf clubs after the diagnosis. "I thought it was a sick joke," he told The Post, recalling the shock of the diagnosis and his early reluctance to play. He said a few successful swings at a driving range convinced him he could adapt and keep competing.

The USBGA and the International Blind Golf Association divide competitors into three sight classifications: B1 for no vision, B2 for limited usable vision and B3 for greater usable vision. Every player is paired with a coach or guide who describes hole layouts, provides yardages, helps with club selection and alignment, and reads putts. Coaches step out distances on greens so players can feel how hard to hit a putt and they track shots and keep score.

Bob Banks, president of the USBGA, said he began losing his sight in his mid-50s from the same genetic condition that affected Poincenot. Banks recounted a moment he threw his clubs away in anger and then, after watching a video of a blind golfer, retrieved them and re-entered the sport. "Our coaches are essentially caddies on steroids," Banks said, describing the varied responsibilities guides assume to enable play.

Jake Olson, 28, represents another high-profile example of adaptation in the sport. Olson lost his sight at 12 to retinoblastoma and went on to become the first fully blind athlete to appear in a Division I college-football game when he kicked an extra point for USC in the 2017 season opener. He has since compiled multiple blind-golf tournament victories, including the 2019 USBGA National Championship and the 2024 U.S. Blind Open, and continues to compete with his father, Brian, serving as his coach.

Olson said the relationship with his coach is central to his success. "It's hard to put into words the impact my dad has had on my journey as a golfer," he said. He recalled a match in which his mother had to guide him and underscored how guiding requires not only lining up a shot but understanding course strategy and communicating it so the player can visualize and execute.

Not every top blind golfer lost vision early in life. Mario Tobia of New Jersey lost his sight at about 40 because of retinitis pigmentosa and rebuilt his competitive game while learning to play without sight. Now 70, Tobia serves on the International Blind Golf Association board and has won multiple national and American Blind Golf titles. He credited his son Michael, who serves as his coach, with helping him walk the course and compete: "I couldn't even play golf if it wasn't for him," Tobia said.

Players across the classifications speak of a dual reality: the sport is fiercely competitive and technically demanding, but it also offers social bonds and opportunities inaccessible otherwise. Poincenot noted that muscle memory from his youth helped him re-learn swings, while Olson described the shared frustrations and satisfactions of golf. "Golf is brutal. Borderline cruel," Olson said, adding that the need to coordinate every shot with a partner can add a layer of complexity and, occasionally, humor.

The international blind-golf community stages world championships and regional events, and many players have had chance encounters with notable professionals and courses. Poincenot has played on five continents and teamed with professionals such as 1987 Masters champion Larry Mize and European Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance. He said the travel and opportunities to play premier courses have been unexpected benefits since losing his sight.

Competition at Oak Marsh will follow standard blind-golf procedures of pairing players with guides and adjudicating play by sight classification. The field includes longtime champions and new challengers, and USBGA officials said the event will emphasize both competition and the camaraderie that characterizes the sport.

Banks said the sport's participants share gratitude for the opportunity to keep playing. "The group of golfers across the USA and internationally are all so grateful to still be playing this game," he said. "You don't have to see it to tee it."

The Sept. 17 championship continues a series that began in 1946. The USBGA, its international partners and local organizers expect players to compete on the Oak Marsh layout under standard tournament conditions, with awards presented by sight classification and overall standings determining national honors.

As competitors converge on Oakdale, the field will test long-standing skills and new talent while offering a profile of adaptive sport where technical precision, coaching, and decades of experience combine to produce high-level golf without sight. Organizers said they hope the event will both crown champions and raise public awareness of blind golf's competitiveness and community.

For many players, the game remains a source of identity, connection and achievement. Whether in early post-diagnosis recovery or after decades of adaptation, competitors say the ability to play has reshaped their lives and expanded opportunities to compete, travel and form deep partnerships on and off the course.