Blind golfer

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Henk Vanamerongen started to lose his sight as a teenager but that didn’t stop him from taking up the sport of golf. Most people he plays with are surprised to learn about his vision loss, he certainly isn’t holding anyone up on the green.

“If I’m looking at a wall with a picture on it, I don’t see that picture there. My eyesight will just fill in the wall as a blank.”

He has macular degeneration, which means his central vision has slowly deteriorated over time. He and his coach, Scott Moltzan, have developed techniques to compensate for his lack of vision. He has a mental picture of his home course banked in his memory and uses major landmarks as cues.

Like most golfers, Henk has his hits and misses, but he’s happy to have found a sport he loves and encourages everyone with a disability to do the same. He says his biggest challenge is overcoming his self doubt, not his vision loss.