Jeremy Poincenot was just 19 when he learned he was going blind thanks to Leber hereditary optic neuropathy, a genetic optic-nerve disease.
His father, Lionel, had bought him a new set of golf clubs for Christmas shortly before the diagnosis, but Jeremy had lost his sight by Dec. 25.
Undeterred, his dad still handed the clubs over. “I thought it was a sick joke,” the son tells The Post. “Why would you do this to me?” he asked. “I didn’t have the mental capacity to be grateful. I was still in that frame of mind where life just wasn’t fair.”
But Jeremy and Lionel headed to a local driving range after Christmas. “I wasn’t ready to go and play on a golf course. I felt too embarrassed,” he says.
Then it happened.
“I said, ‘If I swing and miss the ball, then I’m done,’ but there were a handful of shots I hit that felt just like they used to.” And he said, “OK, I’m ready to play again.”
Now 35, the Carlsbad, Calif., resident is one of the world’s very best blind golfers and a nine-time winner of the United States Blind Golf Association’s championship.
The 79th installment of a competition first won in 1946 by Duluth businessman Clint Russell, who lost his vision when a car tire exploded in his face, is at Oak Marsh Golf Course in Oakdale, Minn., Sept. 17.
USBGA President Bob Banks will play. He began to lose his sight in his mid-50s — also from Leber. “Anger and depression are very common among people who have vision loss, and I certainly thought all my regular fun activities were gone forever,” he says. “So in a spate of anger, I tossed my golf clubs in the trash.”
But as he contemplated a sightless life, Banks chanced upon a YouTube video of a blind man playing golf and realized that with a little help he might still play the game he loved. “So I went and got my clubs out of the trash.”
Players compete within sight classifications from the USBGA and the International Blind Golf Association: B1 (no vision), B2 (little usable vision) and B3 (better usable vision).
All golfers have a coach or guide who describes the layout of the hole ahead and provides the yardages involved, helping select the right club and making sure players are correctly aligned for the shot. At the putting green, coaches will not only read the line of the putt but step out the distance with players to give them a grasp of just how hard they have to hit the ball to reach the hole.
Jeremy Poincenot says his secret is the bond he shares with his coach — Lionel. “I don’t I think I give my dad enough credit,” he says. “He’s got to do all the stuff normal caddies do, but he’s also got to verbalize a lot of things. It’s like he’s had to learn a whole new language to become a guide for a legally blind golfer.”
It wasn’t easy to get to the top.
When Poincenot began playing again, there was no shortage of whiffs, shanks and air shots. But over time, his pre-shot routine became second nature as muscle memory from his teen golf-playing days took over.
He won the 2010 World Blind Golf championship at 20 and was 2011’s San Diego Hall of Champions Challenged Athlete of the Year.
It was a similar experience for Jake Olson, whose father, Brian, is also his coach. “It’s hard to put into words the impact my dad has had on my journey as a golfer,” says the 28-year-old. “The effort, the time, the commitment — he’s the reason I’m the golfer I am today.”
When his dad can’t make his games, his mother, Cindy, stands in. “I remember a match during my freshman year of high school when mom guided me,” he recalls. “She did her best, but at one point we were near a green, and she told me to chip it about 12 yards. I hit it well, but then she said, ‘Oh, it went in the bunker!’ And I said, ‘What bunker?’ That moment made it clear: Guiding a blind golfer isn’t just about lining up a shot. It’s about understanding the course, seeing the shot and communicating it in a way that helps me visualize and execute.”
Bob Banks agrees. “Our coaches are essentially caddies on steroids,” he says. “They help with my aim, track my shot, keep score, drive the cart, everything really. You just wouldn’t be able to play without them.”
Olson lost his sight to retinoblastoma, a rare eye cancer, at 12 but has never let it hold him back.
As a University of Southern California student, he was a Trojan walk-on, becoming the first fully blind athlete to play in a Division I college-football game with his 2017 debut in the season opener against Western Michigan. He snapped the final extra point.
Olson boasts a string of blind-golf-tournament victories, including the 2019 USBGA National Championship, the 2024 US Blind Open and a raft of Adaptive events. He’s also an entrepreneur, motivational speaker, husband and father. “I’m beyond grateful that I still get to play the game I love, but I wouldn’t be here without the people around me who make it possible,” he says. “They’ve helped turn what once felt impossible into something extraordinary.”
While Poincenot and Olson had youth on their side, players who lose their vision in later life have more difficulties.
South Jersey’s 70-year-old Mario Tobia — an IBGA director, two-time US Blind Golf Association champion and four-time American Blind Golf champion — lost his sight at 40, the result of retinitis pigmentosa, a degenerative condition that affects how the retina reacts to light, eventually leading to complete blindness.
But as his life changed beyond recognition, the green gave him a new focus. “Golf was one of a few sports activities I could actually play and something I could still do as a blind person,” he says. “It was tough at first because I could no longer see the ball on the ground. And while I didn’t do particularly well in my first tournament, I was hooked on the concept.”
His son, Michael, is his coach. “I couldn’t even play golf if it wasn’t for him. I couldn’t even walk on the golf course,” he says. “I’m very competitive, but whatever happens on the golf course, I can always reflect on the experience of just having that opportunity to be one on one with my son. It’s special.”
Like their sighted peers, blind golfers are in permanent pursuit of the perfect golf shot. “There’s a part in the movie ‘Tin Cup’ where the golf pro Roy McAvoy” — played by Kevin Costner — “says everybody has a tuning fork in them and it only goes off when you hit a perfect golf shot,” Poincenot notes. “And that tuning fork goes off whether you’re blind, visually impaired or sighted.”
Blind golfers also suffer from the same disappointment sighted players feel when things go awry. “Golf is brutal. Borderline cruel. And the more time and effort you put into it, the more it finds ways to test you,” says Olson. “But there’s an added layer of frustration when you’re hitting every shot with a partner. With golf clubs readily available, I’m honestly not sure how there hasn’t been a murder. That’s probably why I don’t chuck clubs — though I’ve definitely wanted to.”
But being a blind golfer has also opened up a whole new world of opportunity for Poincenot.
He’s golfed on five continents — playing Pebble Beach with 1987 Masters winner Larry Mize and in China with champion European Ryder Cup captain Sam Torrance and former world No. 1 Ian Woosnam. “I’ve had pinch-me moments, and it’s one of those things that had I not lost my sight, I wouldn’t have had these experiences,” he says. “So I need to realize how lucky I am.”
Banks says Poincenot, Olson and Tobia are typical of the close-knit but ultracompetitive world of blind golf. “The group of golfers across the USA and internationally are all so grateful to still be playing this game,” he says. “It’s like we say at the USBGA — you don’t have to see it to tee it!”
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