Last updated: 08/02/2008
Blind golfer hits hole-in-one

92-year-old golfer Leo Fiyalko has hit a hole in one even though he is blind.

Fiyalko was playing a 110-yard, par-3 hole in Clearwater, Florida when he hit the amazing shot.

“It was my first hole-in-one, and I never saw it,” he said. “I was just trying to put the ball on the green.”

Mr Fiyalko once played to a seven handicap but he began suffering macular degeneration 10 years ago.

He is now legally blind and needs help lining up his shots and finding his golf balls.

Mr Fiyalko was playing with a group-of-friends when he hit his hole-in-one but they were all looking for a lost ball as he prepared to tee off.

One player Jean Gehring said: “I looked up and Leo was about to hit. I said, ‘Hey, somebody has to watch Leo.’
“So I went up there and saw him hit and it was a pretty good shot. I could tell it went on the green, so when we got up there I didn’t see it. I looked in the hole and there it was.”

When told of his achievement, he reportedly just said: “How about that.”

His friends in the Twilighters Club golf group presented him with a plaque to commemorate the feat.