Toronto Star, December 26, 2005

CAESAREA, Israel—The ball explodes off Zohar Sharon's club and flies into the distance. Sharon can't see it, but he knows it's a good one and he flashes a big smile. Two strokes later, he has a birdie.
With the help of a demanding coach, determined caddie and dedicated dog, Sharon has earned an unlikely title — the world's best blind golfer.
Thousands of blind people around the world play golf, but only about a hundred play competitively. Over the past two years, Sharon has dominated them all.
On Nov.14, he made headlines at home with a hole-in-one on the 15th hole at the Caesarea Golf Club, Israel's only 18-hole course. It was the latest in a string of achievements for Sharon, 53, who was blinded while in the army more than 25 years ago.
Since 2003, he's won international blind golfers' tournaments in Scotland, Australia, the U.S. and Canada, where he sank his first eagle at the Ontario Visually Impaired Golfer's championship in August. He's faced off against former U.S. President Gerald Ford in California. And he's beaten a slew of sighted golfers, too.
Sharon may have lost his eyesight, but not his sense of humour. He's described himself as "the world's greatest golf player at night."
"I want every seeing person to have their legs shake with fear a little when they come play a round with me," he added.
Then Sharon turned serious. Golf kept him alive, he said, rescuing him from severe depression. "I enjoy golf more than a seeing man, a lot more," he said. "The grass is always green to me. The trees are always beautiful."
His ordeal began nearly 30 years ago. He was a sniper in a paratrooper unit when a fellow soldier accidentally sprayed a chemical in his face. A series of complicated operations followed, but his eyesight slowly deteriorated until he became completely blind at 28.
"Everything I had before fell apart," he said.
For Sharon, the trick was to stay busy. He first turned to painting and sculpting and then became a physical therapist. When he was going through a divorce, his lawyer introduced him to golf. He tried it for a couple of years but quit because he said it was too hard. After a 10-year absence, he returned to the golf course four years ago.

Associated Press

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