CLEARWATER, Fla. (AP) - A hole-in-one is rare on the golf course, but what are the odds of a blind golfer sinking one?
Leo Fiyalko couldn't see it, but his golf buddies did - a hole-in-one on the fifth hole at the Cove Cay Country Club.
Fiyalko is 92 and has macular degeneration. He's been golfing for 60 years, but his 110-yard shot with a five iron on Jan. 10 was his first hole-in-one.
"I was just trying to put the ball on the green," Fiyalko said.
Fiyalko tees off every Thursday with a group of golfers ranging in age from 70 to 90-plus. He used to have a seven handicap, but now he needs help lining up his shots and finding his golf balls because he only has peripheral vision in his right eye.
Jean Gehring was playing in his foursome and watched Fiyalko's swing.
"I could tell it went on the green, (but) when we got up there I didn't see it. I looked in the hole and there it was," Gehring said.
Gehring said Fiyalko brushed off the feat, and had to be prodded to tell his wife about it at the end of the round.
Fiyalko's friends at the country club presented him with a plaque last week to commemorate the feat.
-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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-------------------- The difference between genius and stupidity is that genius has its limits Posts: 10204 | From: NYC | Registered: Mar 2006
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It makes you wonder sometimes when these very young kids are able to pick up things so easily.
It doesn't matter whether it is a sport or someone that sits at the piano for the first time and plays Mozart, it's just amazing.
Sometimes it makes me wonder if there is something to reincarnation then i stop and think, with my luck i would be reincarnated as a pit bull and and Michael Vick would be my owner.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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the first time i picked up glassblowers tools i just knew how to do it. i was clumsy, but i swear it just came to me almost without thinking. and i hadn't seen people do it before, other than the teacher giving the demo. to be honest i've done my best work without really thinking about it during the actual process. all of the "hard thinking" is prep work, or building and maintaining eqpt.
BTW? i've met other people like me too. glassblowing was once one of the largest industrial enterprises on the planet. automation put the "gaffer" out of business. and until about ten years ago it was very rare to see people doing it or get to do it yourself. so it wasn't like we could learn it (consciously or subconsciously) from watching TV or hanging around and watching other people do it.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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quote:Originally posted by glassman: reincarnation? why not?
the first time i picked up glassblowers tools i just knew how to do it. i was clumsy, but i swear it just came to me almost without thinking. and i hadn't seen people do it before, other than the teacher giving the demo. to be honest i've done my best work without really thinking about it during the actual process. all of the "hard thinking" is prep work, or building and maintaining eqpt.
BTW? i've met other people like me too. glassblowing was once one of the largest industrial enterprises on the planet. automation put the "gaffer" out of business. and until about ten years ago it was very rare to see people doing it or get to do it yourself. so it wasn't like we could learn it (consciously or subconsciously) from watching TV or hanging around and watching other people do it.
You know Glass...the same holds true for me too. Carpentry/building has always come naturally to me. People have often asked me "how did you learn to do this"? My response is "I really don't know, I just know".
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It's all in the timing... Posts: 4303 | From: DSA | Registered: Dec 2003
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I would like to take up golf someday. Seems relaxing. I did take it in college but didn't take it very seriously. Also a great "sport" to chat with your buddies as you golf. I can see how business people have pow wows while playing golf and closing deals.
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Posts: 4669 | Registered: Mar 2004
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That’s one sport i have never like very much but a lot of people seem to love it. I have played maybe 6 or 8 times in my lifetime and can play okay.
I guess it’s the baseball in me that makes me feel that if i hit a ball a long ways someone else should go get it. Seems like anywhere I have played you spend most of your time waiting to play.
Maybe if I could play right through I would like it better. I am not much into the etiquette involved in golf just not my bag.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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Never liked golf much either...but riding down a steep snow covered slope about 40 mph on a single steel edge about an eighth of an inch wide...now that is a sport!
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It's all in the timing... Posts: 4303 | From: DSA | Registered: Dec 2003
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Otherwise, I want the ball in my immediate control, like football, basketball or socccer.
On the contrary, golf is all about controlling the ball. Do you think Tiger Woods can do what he does if he didn't know how to control the ball when he hits it and such?
-------------------- Let the world change you... And you can change the world.
Ernesto "Che" Guevara de la Serna Posts: 4669 | Registered: Mar 2004
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Rogers Hornsby said it best, "When I hit a ball, I want someone else to have to chase it."
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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What's my handicap? I guess it would be the fact that I'm 48 but have the maturity level of about a 12 year old. Most times it's a great thing but believe me, when the situation arises where you have to be a responsible adult, it's definitely a handicap.
Posts: 5729 | From: Wisconsin | Registered: Sep 2003
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I went to the driving range with my grandson today. He has a his set of golfclubs and wanted me to take one of his dad's clubs and hit a few with him.
I really had no interest in hitting a golf ball but i brought a driver to make him happy, although hitting at the driving range isn't all that bad.
I have not hit a golf ball in probably six years and as i said before never have played much. I was surprised by how big that head is on the driver.
What do people need to hit a non moving ball?
How do you not hit the ball a long ways with those things? I know my swing can not be very good at this point but still put 8 out of 10 on the farthest point of the driving range.
Seems like those drivers they use now days takes the work out of perfecting a good swing, maybe that's the point of them.
It's like getting a bowling ball that covers the whole alley.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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Golf is my fair wheather passion, I play at least 3 times a week in the summer (spring and fall), until the wheather gets nasty. I play pool year around and I consider to be a greater challenge and I am better at it. There is so much more to both sports than merely putting a ball in a hole, but if done properly you can manipulate a cue ball to go anywhere on the table you want afer hitting another ball and 3 rails, while your half loaded
-------------------- If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy? Posts: 2647 | From: MN | Registered: Feb 2006
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"if done properly you can manipulate a cue ball to go anywhere on the table you want afer hitting another ball and 3 rails, while your half loaded"
I can't do that after a full nights sleep and fresh coffee.
Half loaded I might fantasize doing so, but, even half loaded, I'd rather save those fantasies for my really true favorite pastime.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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Trust me, it took years of practice. Before I was married I played 3-4 nights a week for at least 2 hours each night. After I was good enough I would set up trick shots with banks and jumps etc. It all made me a better league player. Now i just shoot league 2 nights a week. It is a very hectic schedule betwen the kids BB games, concerts, confrences etc...
-------------------- If ignorance is bliss, why aren't more people happy? Posts: 2647 | From: MN | Registered: Feb 2006
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Never heard of pool leagues till now. Lots of places to shoot pool in Ca.
Pool shooting is fun just haven't done it for years.
Bowling Leagues on the other hand have been around for a long time. Really surprised how that sport has had a resurection. Love those bumper rails they now have for kids to keep the ball from going in the gutter.
Posts: 3875 | From: ca. | Registered: Jul 2005
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Half loaded I might fantasize doing so, but, even half loaded, I'd rather save those fantasies for my really true favorite pastime.
What's that, tearing apart the Bush administration? ROFLMAO :) I kid of course, only cause I know you have a sense of humor bdg......
To be honest, there was a day when, on a rare good day, I could run a table or two of four of nine ball. But too many hammers have landed on thumbs and fingers, the knees walked over a few too many tall mountains, and the peepers no longer are certain they see the angles right. It ain't the age, it's the mileage on the ol' chassis that turns one to a thinker 'stead o' a doer.
Posts: 11304 | From: Fort Worth, Texas | Registered: Mar 2005
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quote:Originally posted by IWISHIHAD: Never heard of pool leagues till now. Lots of places to shoot pool in Ca.
Pool shooting is fun just haven't done it for years.
Bowling Leagues on the other hand have been around for a long time. Really surprised how that sport has had a resurection. Love those bumper rails they now have for kids to keep the ball from going in the gutter.
i musta met half the people living in Omaha NE in less than a year playing leagues and had a blast doing it. got taught a lot, and i mean a lot of lessons on the table.
still? there's nothing i like better than a win or go home tournament. nothing like a little pressure to get the blood flowing.
-------------------- Don't envy the happiness of those who live in a fool's paradise. Posts: 36378 | From: USA | Registered: Sep 2003
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I never did league play, but then...up until a few years ago, we had one of the last remaining "old time" neighborhood pool halls. Safe enough you could take kids on Saturday afternoon but salty enough that few strangers would show up to make trouble... Played lottsa 8- and 9-ball, but maybe my fondest memories are of "golf," played on a snooker table. Heckuva game, that...