The following article appeared in The West Magazine August 20, 2005. Under the heading Perspectives: Ron Conway, World-beating blind golfer.
I lost my sight when I was 38 years old. I’d never played golf before that. I was wondering what I was going to do with the rest of my life and it was presented to me that I could do tenpin bowling, lawn bowls, and then they mentioned golf.
I said “You must be joking”. But they said they had a bunch of guys playing every week and I said, “I’ve got to see that”, which was pretty funny. So I met all these marvelous people and I thought, “If they can do it I can bloody do it”. I developed a visualization technique. I had been a research chemist for 20 years and I applied my analytical background to golf. I realized I could learn to visualize the swing, to visualize the movements, visualize my target, visualize some sort of golf course and create a map in my head. And with my putting, I walk to the pin and my feet give me all the signals, all the moving from right to left, left to right, all the subtleties.
Caddies are very important because they are your eyes. But I tend to be able to give them enough instruction in about 20 minutes so that they can give me all the information I need. I say “Forget that I am blind, I am a golfer now. Tell me this, this and that and you will make me a happy man and let me worry about the mechanics”.
Playing golf is the one time I walk out without a white cane. It’s just marvelous to walk beside somebody at your normal, natural pace in the fresh air and in all that open space.
Sometimes people say, “You can’t have any enjoyment, Ron, when you can’t see where the ball has gone”, but I feel how sweetly I have hit the ball.
I get the caddie to place the head of the club behind the ball and they tell me to move forward or to come back until they feel that I am on target. Within two years I was club champion and the following year I was State champion and within four years I was Australian champion and then three-time world champion.
Now I do corporate stuff and travel the world taking on the likes of Ernie Els, Greg Norman, Nick Faldo, Sergio Garcia and all these guys.
Sometimes I succumb and make them wear blindfolds, but my preference is to take them on as they are on a one-shot on one-shot basis taking on a target.
The most important thing, the most nurturing thing, about golf for me has been that it has given me my life back. It has allowed me to believe that I can be part of society. I am a member of a golf club and when I play guys who are sighted my bets are as good as theirs. They see me as a golfer. I have a handicap (15) that is recognized by any golf association in the world.
I have what I think is an interesting observation regarding right forearm tracing and the legendary Hogan. If you observe Hogan at address his right wrist is in an extreme uncocked position; putting the right forearm almost on the shaft plane. Addressing the ball with the right forearm on the, or close to the shaft plane allows you to feel the plane, and visualize the tracing better.
I've tried setting up with an extremely uncocked right wrist, and the results are impressive. The tracing plane becomes crystalized in my mind, and everything else fades into the background.
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"90% of all putts that don't make it to the hole don't go in".
If you grip the club in the cup of the right hand instead of the fingers that Hogan advocates in his book Five Lessons, you could keep your right forearm, bent right wrist and club shaft shaft all in the same plane (right forearm flying wedge) in a "Level" condition.
Number Four: "The Right Forearm tracing down the Delivery Line."
Homer described the Inclined Plane as "the heart and soul" of the golf Stroke. And Tracing the Delivery Line assures staying On Plane. The Delivery Line could be either the true Geometric Plane Line (Swinging) -- the straight line baseline of the Inclined Plane; or, the Angle of Approach (Hitting) -- the geometric equivalent of the Arc of Approach (2-J-3).
He added that the thought might be peculiar to him: He had spent so many years focusing on getting correctly to the Top that he needed a key to get him from the Top through Impact!
Congratulations to the nine percent of the voters who got it right. Now, let's all get out there and Trace!
Fog . . .
Does Mr. K's most important swing-thought bar the Snap Release?
I have been diligently wasting valuable corporate time by reading my printed copy of the Archives while in my summer office with the porcline seat. I came across this and was trying to figure out what is what.
Based on a post from Chuck's Archives: Neither the Arc of Approach or the Plane line is compatible with the Snap Releases, especially when using maximum Trigger Delay. In fact, it is the Aiming Point Techinique (6-E-2) that is mandadotry for the control of a Snap Release (6-E-1). In this instance, the Player's attention should be on the Straight Line Delivery Path (of the Hands) and not on the Plane Line Tracing, even though the Clubhead will take the same path through the ball in both cases.
Would Mr. K advise against the snap release based on this?
Does Mr. K's most important swing-thought bar the Snap Release?
No.
When you Drive the Hands toward the Aiming Point -- in order to arrive at the correct Impact Hands Location when using an Automatic Snap Release -- you automatically Trace the Straight Plane Line.
Hybrid Mode
