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You are in: Golf: Disability |  |
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Simon's ambition to top the world | |
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Around the Academy: |
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Simon (right) tees up with his guide Stuart
Simon Cookson is Britain's top blind golfer. He is partially sighted and competes on the international circuit.
Here he explains how blind golf has allowed him to rediscover the game and how he plans to be a world beater. 
To begin with not being able to take part in competitive sport was like losing an arm. I have a genetic condition called Retinitis Pigmentosa. My vision was perfectly normal but then all of a sudden, at the age of 24, it started to fail.
Although it was obvious to me that I'd be able to play golf, the English Blind Golf Association gave me another platform to go out and compete properly, on an international basis and with real kudos attached to it. It just completely changed my perspective on the game and allowed me to participate in sport the way I always wanted to; which is to compete on all levels.
Improvement Initially when I first lost my eyesight I stopped playing. When I played a young man there was always a buzz when you stood on a tee and looked down an avenue of trees and ripped one down the middle and you could see the ball take off. Or when you hit a shot within two or three feet of the flag and see it spin back towards the hole - there's a big buzz in that - which of course you don't get.
But if you make birdies and get good scores you get just as much pleasure playing this way. If you suffer from a disability like this, the natural reaction is you're going to get worse at something. But the way the golf has gone for me over the last couple of years especially, I honestly believe I can get better. Ambition I just want to be the best player that I can be. You want to shoot scores that sighted golfers would be jealous of. Without question I want to be the best blind golfer in the world. I understand there's a couple of golfers in the US who've got lower handicaps than me. I've not seen what gross scores they've hit recently but in terms of gross scoring, I must be right up there. As the sport expands, and there are societies all over the world, I want to be top of the pile, definitely.
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