Simple everyday activities that able bodied people don’t think
twice about performing are more difficult for Roy Holt and Marty
Turcios.
Gilroy – Simple everyday activities that able bodied people don’t think twice about performing are more difficult for Roy Holt and Marty Turcios.
Turcios, 46, has cerebral palsy. The disease only affects his body, not his mind. It contorts his muscles, taking away his physical control and making his gait unsteady and his speech slow.
But on good days, he can shoot in the 90s on the golf course.
Gilroy native Holt, also 46, is legally blind. He can’t drive himself to the golf course to play because of his condition, but once he’s there, he too can score better than most golfers with no disabilities. From 1993 to 1997, he was in the top three in the world in his division – B-2 Visually Impaired – and regularly scored in the 70s.
For both Holt and Turcios, golf is an athletic outlet – and more.
“Because I drive a car, I can play golf,” Turcios said. “Because I can play golf, I can drive a car.”
Holt is the executive director of the American Blind and Disabled Golf Association (ABDGA), while Turcios is its vice president. Both are trying to bring the sport and ABDGA programs to other disabled people in the area who might benefit from it. To raise funds for the cause, Holt has headed up planning for the 4th Annual ABDGA Golf Fundraiser Scramble, which will be held Friday at Eagle Ridge Golf Club in Gilroy. The tournament, which is followed by a dinner and auction, will be hosted by Mitch Juricich of the Fox Sports golf television show “Hooked on Golf,” also a radio program on KNBR.
Juricich does golf tournaments for several charitable organizations, but feels particularly strong about the mission of the ABDGA.
“(Golf) knows no boundaries,” Juricich said. “You don’t have to be tall or strong or run fast. You can play the game if you are blind and disabled.”
That’s a big reason Holt and Turcios play golf.
“When people ask why I choose golf, the only real answer I have would be that it’s easier than what I really wanted to do: Be a middle linebacker (in football),” said Turcios, who has been playing the sport for over 35 years.
At the tournament, those participating will have the chance to see what it feels like to golf with a disability.
“We try to give the golfers that come and play in the event and support the organization an experience,” Holt said. “We have them do a long drive contest totally blind, a tee shot with low vision and hit a shot from a wheelchair.”
Despite his physical disabilities, Turcios doesn’t use any special equipment to play a round of golf. Like any skilled golfer, his ability comes from years of practice and patience. But his pure will to play the game is greater than most.
Just to tee up the ball, Turcios has to get down on one knee for balance, struggling to hold the ball and tee in his contorted hand. He gets up and takes a couple practice swings.
He’s shaky and unsteady and looks like he’s on the verge of falling down as he follows through on his swing from the tees.
Sometimes, he does fall.
But not on one particular tee shot that he played recently on the par-3 hole at Gilroy Golf Club.
Somehow, through all the unsteadiness, Turcios makes solid contact with the ball, as he does on a very consistent basis. He lands the ball in the rough on the edge of the green of the 140-yard hole.
“I nailed that right on the screws,” he says after the shot.
Holt calls Turcios “deadly” around the green. After landing his second shot about 10 feet above the hole, Turcios shows why. Faced with a downhill putt for par, he welcomes the pressure.
“If I miss, it’s going to be written down how I choked,” he says as he lines up his shot.
Turcios reads the speed perfectly and gets the ball to roll around the left edge of the hole and in.
Although Holt has much more physical control than Turcios, he isn’t completely self sufficient on the course like his friend because of his poor sight. He needs someone to line up his shots because he sees no detail on the course. Holt relies on bigger course landmarks to measure distance, like a drainage pipe along the cart path. He also relies more on his knowledge of a course. When the groundskeeper at Gilroy Golf Club cuts the greens in a different direction, Holt knows it.
“It’s like playing a new course every time,” he said.
Now, Holt and Turcios can play on whatever course they want. But it wasn’t always that way, which is a big reason why the two want to develop more local golf programs for people with disabilities.
Holt wants to see the organization be a more effective facilitator between golf professionals and the physical therapists who work with disabled individuals. Turcios, who earned his master’s degree in recreational therapy from San Jose State and holds private workshops for disabled golfers, is especially passionate about giving people with disabilities the tools to learn the game – and keep playing it on their own.
To him, it’s all about giving the gift of self-direction.
“You see a program (helping disabled golfers) develop and improve a different skill every week,” Turcios said. “But they never taught them to come in and use the driving range or get a bucket of balls.”
Friday’s outing begins at noon with a shotgun start.
“It’s a fun time. I wish more people would come out,” Juricich said. “I just wish the community would get behind this.”
How to sign up
The American Blind and Disabled Golf Association 4th Annual Golf Fundraiser Scramble
When: Friday, Sept. 16 at noon
Where: Eagle Ridge Golf Club
Cost: $195 (includes golf, cart, range, lunch, dinner, on course refreshments, contests, prizes, awards and raffle)
Format: Shotgun start, dinner and auction to follow
For more information, visit www.abdga.org or contact Roy Holt at (408) 842-3369.
