Blind Golfers Give Fund-Raiser for the Red Cross Their Best Shots

Golfers have their handicaps, but blindness was not considered one of them Monday, as two blind golfers played against sighted players in a fund-raising tournament.

The sighted golfers putted against two blind men at Pelican Hill Golf Course on Monday, and the match was no foregone conclusion.

As one competitor, who identified himself as Good Old John, pointed out: “They have been practicing all morning. This is my first shot.”

Even Brent Barry, a professional basketball player with the Los Angeles Clippers, lost the challenge to his blind opponents.

Granted, the two blind players, Rick Boggs and Sead Bekric, had a little help. One friend coached them as they attempted to make the 35-foot putt, while another assisted by making a clucking sound behind the flag to help them identify their goal.

Bekric and Boggs, who lost a few of the putting matches, rank themselves as amateurs on the golf course. But both consider themselves good athletes and competitors.

A few short years ago, Bekric, who came to the United States from Bosnia in 1993, had never heard of golf and had never played until a few weeks ago when he was asked to participate in the tournament.

The 19-year-old Bekric lost his sight as a result of the war in his home country, but has never let go of his enthusiasm for sports. He skates, rides horses, and competes in the martial arts against young sighted men.

Boggs, who is best known as the spokesman for AirTouch Cellular, has played a few games of golf in his life, probably 10 in all his 34 years, he said, but was never taken with the sport.

“I always thought it was a little boring,” he said. He prefers faster-paced sports like baseball, basketball and football, all of which he learned as a boy.

The putting contest kicked off a charity golf tournament that raised money for the American Red Cross. Players paid $10 to putt against Bekric and Boggs.