At the driving range, spectators stand back and watch in amazement as the 54-year-old moshavnik drills balls far into the distance. During a friendly round at Maple Downs Golf & Country Club, north of Toronto, his playing partners watch in awe at his smooth and balanced swing, his club head speed and the accuracy of his shots.

His facility around the golf course is something to behold, and Sharon picks up on the vibes of his playing partners and the feedback from his trusted caddy, Shimshon Levy. He has to rely on the input of others because he can’t actually see what he’s doing.

An Israeli army veteran who was wounded in action, Sharon has been totally blind for more than 25 years. But despite his disability, he manages to strike the ball solidly and with remarkable accuracy, proving that in golf, it’s all about the swing.

At the par 4, 387-yard third hole at Maple Downs, Sharon registered a stunning achievement when he drained his second shot to record his first ever eagle (two strokes under par), something most sighted golfers would give their eye teeth to do.

His first shot off the tee was flawless – a low driving bullet that travelled 230 yards right down the middle of the fairway.

His second was aimed straight at the heart of the green. It landed right of the pin, slowed down and then made a left turn, taking the slope and making a bee-line towards the flag. It was, as a Golf Channel commentator might say, as if it had eyes. When the ball disappeared, his playing partners stood in slack-jawed awe. After all, who gets an eagle?

“It’s mind blowing,” said Alan Baker, president of Maple Downs. “And the guy is just a delight. Everyone involved found it inspiring. He overcame a major handicap.”

Sharon’s stunning achievement did not come out of the blue. It took years of practice to get to where he is today.

Sharon endured the kind of frustration that can dissuade even sighted golfers, but he refused to give up. He spends as much as 10 hours a day practicing at his home club in Caesarea and another couple of hours working out at a health club run by Beit Halochem, the organization that provides rehabilitation and social services to disabled Israeli army veterans.

Last summer, his Herculean efforts paid off when he entered his first international event, the World Invitational Blind Champion Golfer tournament in Scotland. Wearing a knitted kippah throughout the match, Sharon finished first among blind golfers. At this point, he could legitimately be considered the best blind golfer in the world.

Sharon was in Toronto recently as an ambassador for Beit Halochem Canada (Aid to Disabled Veterans of Israel). He played in a Beit Halochem fundraiser at Angus Glen Golf and Country Club as well as social rounds at Maple Downs and Oakdale, two largely Jewish clubs. The tournament netted $70,000 for Beit Halochem’s rehabilitation programs for blind veterans.

Sharon, who took up the game about five years ago after a few years away from the sport, has spent the past three winters in Boca Raton, Fla., where he practices his game and receives offers to enter tournaments. He’s played in Palm Springs and San Diego, among other locations, and he sends the funds he raises from his participation to an Israeli school that trains guide dogs.

Dylan, Sharon’s mixed Labrador/Golden Retriever, is his constant companion and frolics on the course as he and Levy tool about in a golf cart.

Sharon acknowledges he could not do what he does without the assistance of Levy, his lifelong friend.

Levy describes the hole, tells him the yardage, and helps him select his club. Once a club is chosen and after Sharon takes a practice swing or two, Levy grounds the club behind the ball aimed in the direction of the shot. Sharon takes his stance from the position of the club and without anything more in the way of a pre-shot routine, makes his swing.

Sharon was first exposed to golf by chance 13 years ago, when his wife’s lawyer suggested he try putting some balls on a carpet. He took up the sport thanks to a Beit Halochem program, but he become frustrated with the game and put it aside for several years.

When he took up the sport again, he did so with a vengeance. Today, he feels he’s “married to golf.” His best round was a 92 at Caesarea, a notoriously difficult course, and an 84 at Kibbutz Ga’ash.

Growing up on Aviel, a co-operative farm, Sharon knew virtually nothing about the sport. The names Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus still mean nothing to him, though he does know about today’s top golfers, Tiger Woods and Vijay Singh.

A talented athlete in his youth, Sharon was at one time Israel’s 1,500-metre champion and a goalie for a second tier professional soccer team.

He served as a sniper in the Israeli Defence Force and later as a sapper. Although he won’t describe how he lost his vision, a story last year in Ha’aretz reported he was blinded after a chemical substance sprayed in his face.

These days, Levy is his eyes on the golf course, or as Sharon said, “he’s the boss. I just swing the club and he tells me which club to take. He watches the stance, the aim, where the ball is in the stance.

“If I succeed, it’s because I’m good. If I don’t, it’s because he’s bad,” Sharon said as he breaks into a laugh.

Levy takes the good-natured ribbing with aplomb. “It took him a long time to learn how to hit the ball and learn to play. So every swing is a success for me,” he said.

Sharon’s feel for the game is now so acute that he knows if he hit the ball well even before Levy tells him. On the par 3, 197-yard second hole, he immediately knew that he had mis-hit his tee shot. The ball landed in a greenside bunker, left of the pin. Sharon promptly hit a lovely “splash” shot that popped the ball out of the sand and onto the green about 15 feet from the hole.

Although Sharon went through a very difficult time following the loss of his vision, he’s all smiles on the golf course. It clearly gives him lots of satisfaction and a feeling of accomplishment.

“In golf, what’s nice is that you play against yourself. The battle is with yourself. All the time you feel you can do better. Even if the score is 50, you can think to yourself you can get 49.”

When he travels and plays golf, he feels he’s an ambassador for the Jewish people.

Remarkably, creating artwork and teaching art is another of his passions. He etches the outlines of his subject on wood and then adds colour. It takes him four years to complete one picture, though he works on as many as 10 at a time. A Beit Halochem video that highlights the artwork shows that Sharon’s talents are not limited to the golf course.

“I love it very, very much, but it is very, very hard, and you’re alone in your room.”

One day, when he’s older, he’ll combine the two loves and draw a picture about golf, he said.

Webmaster's Note: Zohar Sharon won the Senior Men's Totally Blind division at the 2005 Ontario Visually Impaired Golfers Provincial Championship held at Cambridge Golf Course on August 28, 2005. His 18 hole total was 99.

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