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Californian Luke Lin wins 2020 South African Blind Open Championship.

Coming Events

• March 15/16, 2021 Victorian Blind Golf Open, Rosebud
• May 17/18, 2021 Blind Golf South Australia Open, Adelaide Shores
• May 20/21, 2021 National Stableford Championship, Adelaide Shores

Under National and International Events, the ISPS Handa South African Open and ISPS Handa World Championship have been rescheduled to 2 - 9 Oct 2021.

Under Coming Events Victoria, the calendar has been updated with the 2021 events.

Handicaps

The BGA Handicaps as at December 3rd 2020 are now available .

BGA 2020-21 Order of Merit

Updated BGA Order of Merit 2020-2021 (After 2020 BGNSW Open ) placings can be found on this website under Order of Merit.

McKenzie Wins 2020 Vision Australia NSW Blind Golf Open Championship

Liverpool Golf Club again hosted the 2020 Vision Australia NSW Blind Golf Open Championship for Blind and Low Vision golfers, played over two rounds on Tuesday 17 and Wednesday 18 November, where numbers were limited to NSW and ACT players by the border closures as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Paul McKenzie with caddie/guide Leonie Fraser, playing on a handicap of 19, mastered the challenging conditions best to shoot a Net total of 145 and Gross total of 183 for the 2 rounds. Paul, who is gradually losing his eyesight and has only recently become a member of Blind Golf NSW is also a member of Yowani Golf Club in the ACT. His association with Blind Golf has assisted him in coming to terms with his eyesight condition, being able to liaise with people with similar eyesight conditions.

Main sponsor Vision Australia awarded trophies for all winners and sight categories and was represented by Rolf Geerlings and expressed that attending the Championships and Presentation had renewed his passion for the game which had waned due to his loss of eyesight and was contemplating joining Blind Golf NSW soon, after being inspired by the efforts of the golfers who participated in the event. Special thanks also goes to Srixon and Drummond Golf for their sponsorship of this event and also those hard working caddie/guides.

Blind Golf NSW wishes to acknowledge Peter Summers, Brent Dale and their staff at Liverpool Golf Club for hosting the Championships. Their attention to detail made it easy for the players, caddie/guides and officials to enjoy the tournament. So impressed by the standard of the golf and the feedback received from the players, Liverpool Golf Club have offered to host the 2021 NSW tournament and the 2021 ISPS HANDA Australian Blind Golf Open Championship.

If this article has encouraged you to find out more about Blind Golf or are interested in becoming involved as a player, caddie/guide or sponsor, please browse this site further, visit the Facebook Page for Blind Golf NSW, or email blindgolfnsw@gmail.com

Tournament Summary

Net Winner (NSW Vision Australia Open Champion): Paul McKenzie (ACT)
Net Runner Up: Michele Watts(NSW)
Gross Winner: Mark Eschbank (NSW)

Sight Category Winners

B3 Champion: Rod Mills (NSW)
B3 Runner Up: John Hayward (NSW)
B2 Champion: Gary Sargent (NSW)
B2 Runner Up: Graham Coulton
Stableford Winner: Tony Telfer (NSW)

Results can be found on this website under 2020 New South Wales Open, 36 Hole Stroke Results.

2020 Queensland Open Results

The 2020 Blind Golf Open was held from 12-13 October at RACV Royal Pines on the Gold Coast and attracted 16 players. For the first time, we added an open division to include anybody with any visual condition – even if they have not submitted official sight classification forms. Also for the first time, we included an academy division which featured 13 year old Joshua Woods. Joshua and his parents were absolutely thrilled to take home the first ever Academy Award division prize from the 2020 BGQ Open. The event was supported by the PGA Golf Institute at Sanctuary Cove which supplied students to be marshals and scorers.

2020 Queensland Open Results can be found on this website under Queensland Results.

Western Australia Open Results 2020

The results for the Western Australia Blind Golf Open Tournament, 17-18 September 2020, at Wembley Golf Course, W.A. can be found on this website at the Western Australia Tournament Results page.

2020 ISPS HANDA Australian Blind Golf Open

The 2020 ISPS Handa Australian Blind Golf Open was staged at the Rosebud Country Club on March 19/20. There was an excellent field of 24 players in attendance, 19 of whom participated in a 36 Hole stroke event and 5 who participated in a stableford event. The event was again supported by the wonderful Rosebud Country Club members as well as the Management and support staff of the Rosebud Country Club.

The 2020 Australian Champion with a net score of 143 was Graham Coulton from New South Wales with his longtime caddie Sue Carpenter.

The 2020 Australian Champion Runner up with a net score of 148 was Paul McKenzie from Canberra with his caddie Michael Croft. Congratulations to Paul who is a new member of Blind Golf New South Wales.

The 2020 Australian Open Gross Champion with a score of 186 was Paul McKenzie with his caddie Michael Croft.

The B1 category Gross and Net Champion was Glenn Niciejewski

The B2 category Gross and Net Champion was Graham Coulton

The B3 category Gross and Net Champion was Paul McKenzie

The winner of the Stableford Event was Doug Sloan with 41 points

Results at 2020 ISPS HANDA Australian Open Results.

2020 Victorian Open

The 2020 Victorian Blind Golf Open Championships were played on the North Course at Rosebud Country Club on March 16/17 2020

This was the 30th consecutive year that the Victorian Blind Golf Open has been held at Rosebud Country Club which is a unique record. In that 30 year period a unique relationship has developed between the two organisations which both parties hope to continue for many more years to come. Rosebud Country Club members provide volunteer caddies, markers, walkers and scorers who each extend their passion and friendship to the players. At a celebration dinner held at Rosebud Country Club on Wednesday the 16th of March to celebrate the occasion Blind Golf Victoria President Doug Sloan made special mention of Rosebud member and accredited rules official Arthur Scott who has acted as Tournament Referee for every event played over the 30 years.

Blind Golf Victoria was delighted to welcome a field of 27 players to play in this year’s event which was the biggest attendance since the 2004 Victorian Open was held in conjunction with the ISPS HANDA World Blind Golf Championships.

This year’s winner was Glenn Niciejewski from Queensland with his caddy Mark Tookey who had an incredible score of 97 points over the 2 days which is 25 points under his handicap. Glenn is a B1 classified, totally blind player who has worked very hard on his golf and fitness over the last few years and has reduced his handicap from the maximum 54 for a B1 to 42 after this event. Runner up was David Martin a B2 classified player who is a Queensland member with his caddy Jodie Martin. David had a wonderful 2 day score of 85 points which in most years would have won the Victorian Open.

David Blyth from Victoria won the B1 Classification with 55 points, Graham Coulton from New South Wales the B2 Classification with 65 points and Neil Herdegen from Queensland the B3 Classification with 73 points.

Results at BGV Victorian Open Championship Results 2020.

Articles at Blind golfers to tee off at Rosebud for Vic Open (Golf Australia), Blind golfers to tee off at Rosebuds 30th Victorian Open (mivision The Ophthalmic Journal), and Queenslander wins Vic blind title (Golf Australia) .

Photo of 2020 ISPS Handa Australian Open Winner Graham Coulton with his caddie Sue Carpenter.

BGSA Demo Day

A report on the Blind Golf Demonstration Day held at the recent ladies Australian Open at Royal Adelaide (including YouTube video).

Policy

Blind Golf Australia has updated the Order of Merit Policy effective from the 1st of January 2020 to include Order of Merit points for travel to interstate events and for participation. The South Australian Blind Golf Open is now included as a sanctioned event. To read the updated policy go to Policies on this website.

Handicaps

The International Blind Golf Association ( IBGA) has introduced a new handicapping policy effective January 1 2020. The previous policy has been changed to better align Blind Golf’s handicap system with the World Handicap System (WHS) which will come into effect worldwide progressively during 2020.

The general effect of the policy changes is that those members who are under their sight classification maximums will have their handicaps reduced by 1 to 2 strokes. Members will be advised of their new handicaps as soon as IBGA/BGA do all their calculations.

It is important to note that golf worldwide will go through the same exercise.

There is a more detailed explanation of the policy changes under “Handicaps” . Additionally the revised IBGA Policy Document is also available in the same section.

BGA Annual General Meeting

BGA’s AGM was held on October 30. The new Board consists of Doug Sloan President , David Martin Vice President, Peter North Secretary/Treasurer , Stephen Jackson and Rod Mills Directors.

Geoff Walsh was appointed as Director/Handicapper at the last BGA Board Meeting.

ABC Video on Blind Golf

A short interview by the ABC with Graham Coulton and his caddy Sue Carpenter can be seen in the video section of this website

Website Update

This website has been totally updated to eliminate duplication, delete irrelevant and out of date items and add new items which hopefully readers will find of interest. In particular we have added a totally new section on how to get started in blind golf in Australia including a copy of the sight certificate required, updated contacts and revamped all BGA policies governing blind golf played in Australia—the latter is important for current members to read—go to Policies.