Speaker 1:
Tee up. It's time for the Blind Golf Canada Podcast.
Gerry Nelson:
Hello again, everyone. Welcome to the Blind Golf Canada Podcast. I'm Gerry Nelson, president of Blind Golf Canada, blind golfer as well. And this is Darren Duma.
Darren:
Hi, everybody.
Gerry Nelson:
And tell them, Darren, what are your duties around blind golf in Canada?
Darren:
Well, that's a long list, Gerry, but I'm president of the Western Canadian Blind Golf Association and also VP of admin with Blind Golf Canada working alongside you.
Gerry Nelson:
Thanks, Darren. If you saw our last episode and I do literally mean saw or have seen, you'll know that we have gone through video and are now running our podcast on YouTube as well as all our other usual podcast portals, if you will. And we are super pumped and pleased again to have, excuse me, AMI on board. And it just makes our podcast, we believe so much better. And Darren, why don't you say thanks to AMI and our other sponsors as well?
Darren:
Thanks, Gerry. Yes, we would love to thank our sponsors, AMI here today doing this podcast and our future video podcasts and also our other sponsors, CNIB Foundation, all our Lion's Clubs across Canada, we couldn't function without you. And also Canadian Council of the Blind and ISPS Handa. Without your support, we could not function in blind golf. So thank you all, and all our local sponsors at all our events, we could not do without you, so thank you.
Gerry Nelson:
Thanks, buddy. As we mentioned in our last podcast, we are here at the greens of Renton in beautiful Simcoe, Ontario, and we are about to rip the lid off a very important week for blind golf in Canada. We have the Ontario Provincial Championships, which is a two-day stable for tournament with a day off, and then we have the 2022 Canadian Open Blind Golf Championships that will be contested at the end of this week here at the greens of Renton. Darren, it's been a long time before this year, since we were last at a tournament. I believe the last time that we got together as Canadian blind golfers were the three tournaments, back to back to back, that you hosted out in the Creston, Kimberley, Cranbrook area. And by the way, viewers that was never previously done and has not yet been done since, where a person and association, a country has hosted three blind golf tournaments back to back to back. So that is a feather in your cap, Darren Duma. In a brief couple of sentences, tell us what you did in 2019 out in your neck of the woods.
Darren:
Now, we hosted the BC Provincial in Creston, the Western Canadian Championships in the beautiful Kimberley, BC at Bootleg Gap, and we hosted our ISPS Handa Canadian Championships at St. Eugene Mission in St. Eugene Golf Resort in Cranbrook, BC. And it was quite an amazing feat and a great week of golf out there in the Kootenays, and we pulled it off. We had a great time and that was all just prior to leading into COVID, and so that was our last time together. That was memorable in itself, and then we've all been leading back to those memories all this time, because that was our last time together.
Gerry Nelson:
Well, it really was an amazing feat, first of all, but the old cliche is you don't really miss something until it's gone. And I think you would agree with me and attest to the fact that when we couldn't get together to play blind golf in tournaments, we really did miss it. And there was the odd tournament here or there in 2021, but we never really got up and going again and back into the swing of things, as I like to say, until this year being 2022. We recently, the first week in July, finished up our Western Canadian Championships at Inglewood Golf Club in Calgary. Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?
Darren:
That was our first kickback at it. And that was, like you said, the beginning of July, and that was our 2022 AMI Media Western Canadian Championships. And we had a good turnout there, 26 participants that played at the beautiful Inglewood Golf and Country Club. Very successful event, and of course our reigning Canadian champion, Kiefer Jones, won there again, along with our lady champion, Joanna [inaudible 00:05:56] from Edmonton, Alberta as well.
Gerry Nelson:
I think that's going to be the three best words to refer to Kiefer moving forward, is won there again, because that's all that he seems to do. And so we took a bit of a break from Calgary and it is the 6th or 7th of August. I don't even know what day it is anymore. Here we are at the greens at Renton in Simcoe, and we're going to unpack this week a little more in depth, but also there's another tournament a few weeks after this one, upcoming, is there not?
Darren:
There will be the usual Brian MacLeod Nova Scotia Open. I believe it's in mid-September as well, following our event here. They're hoping to have a good turnout there and that will be the next stop following Ontario is the 2023 Canadians out there, so they'll get everybody geared up this September for next year.
Gerry Nelson:
Yeah. And in addition to the three main tournaments that we are again, having, I almost said we have every year in Canada and we do, save for COVID, there's also blind golf taking place at a provincial level across the country, isn't there?
Darren:
Absolutely. And you can attest to that because I believe you just finished off one in Saskatchewan.
Gerry Nelson:
We did, we did. And we had six golfers in attendance on a rainy day and the weather was miserable, but the fun and camaraderie had by all was great. Now, let's just back up a little bit and go back out west to your neck of the woods. You are beginning to accumulate a fair little nest of golfers out in BC, aren't you?
Darren:
We're picking away at it. We're working at it. We got a few new golfers and we were fortunate to do a BC Golf clinic in late April in Vancouver at Westwood Plateau. And we brought all our golfers together there and had a great clinic and a big shout out to BC Golf again for hosting us and building up team BC.
Gerry Nelson:
I remember having the conversations with you and it sounded like it was a real good event attended by. What are your actual numbers up to in BC now?
Darren:
Well, we have nine golfers part of, I'm going to say BC Blind Golf, and I have several more that are probably going to come on next year.
Gerry Nelson:
I was going to say, there's always potentially more out there, isn't there?
Darren:
Yep. And just circumstances this year, but there's many more wanting to come on next year.
Gerry Nelson:
Now we mentioned Kiefer Jones earlier. Kiefer is the blind golf coordinator for Alberta. And he was at our Western championship as was Derek Kibblewhite. But we had a new golfer there by the name of Jason [inaudible 00:09:20], but things are starting to heat up and begin to boil a little bit in Alberta as well. I think the word is getting out there and we're going to have some more new golfers pretty soon.
Darren:
Absolutely. Kiefer has been really promoting it out there through his blind hockey connections as well, and I believe that's where Jason participates a lot. He's heavily involved in the blind hockey, but there's a lot of potential there for a lot of those hockey players to come out and join us in blind golf in Alberta there.
Gerry Nelson:
And that is a great connection, because I know when you look at NHL hockey players, the majority of them tend to be great golfers. Now, normally at this point, I refer to the hand-eye coordination, but I don't think that's necessarily applicable totally here in this situation, but Jason is young in his blind golf career yet, but he's going to be very, very good when he finds out how far his ball is going, what direction it's going sometimes. And his dad guides for him. And they're already a great pair. Saskatchewan, as I said, we've got six with a potential total of up to 10. Manitoba seems to be the hotbed of blind golfers in Canada. There's about 12 or 14. I think half those numbers are family related members and they make up almost half the province's blind golf population, but that's okay. And Manitoba Blind Golf is very heavily connected with the Manitoba Blind Sports Association. That's great. And then you, in your position at Blind Golf Canada, Darren, have done some extensive work with OVIG and also Hugh Montgomery and his organizing committee for this year's Canadian Open. In your travels down here to Ontario, what more can you tell us about OVIG?
Darren:
OVIG does amazing things throughout the year. They have many provincial events that they hold throughout Ontario, so they're bringing a lot of their membership together in a competitive, but also recreational manner. Many of them like to just play socially, recreationally. So they have 10 to 12 of those events throughout the year and they all come together, which is really great. And a lot of them are here for this week and we're all going to be spoiled here. We already have been by the greens at Renton. I have to say they're just going to do a wonderful job for us this week. The golf course is phenomenal. And I played it several times over the last few weeks. And I can say, they're giving us an awesome facility to use, and they're going to step up and cater to us royally, so I have a big shout to the greens at Renton here and the staff. They're all excited.
Gerry Nelson:
I've also noticed the 10 years that I've been president of Blind Golf Canada that the Ontario visually impaired golfers have continued to grow in numbers almost every year, haven't they?
Darren:
Yes, they have, and they're doing a great job of getting more people to come on board. We were talking about the youth before. We do have two young golfers coming out today to join us. And they're on the range, probably as I speak, getting a golf clinic in and they will join us today on the golf course.
Gerry Nelson:
Well, and that's fantastic. Sorry to cut you off there, buddy, but something that we had implemented right prior to the start of COVID in 2020, it would've been, was to kick off our junior blind golf clinics through our Junior Blind Golf Program. And of course COVID hit and we couldn't do that, but now this year we're able to get started with that. We have two individuals registered. It's a small number, but that's okay. Started and it will continue to grow. So doesn't matter how many, as long as somebody's coming out, taking an advantage of the clinic and they are, so that's great. Quebec. We do have blind golfers in Quebec. We have two that are here at the Canadian Open this week, and Quebec is a province that we would really like to do a further deep dive into and see if we can't grow the population of blind golfers in Quebec. We'd really like to get in there, wouldn't we?
Darren:
Yeah, absolutely. There's a lot of potential there and I'm sure there's lots of golfers out there that don't know about us and will find out about us soon enough and come and join us.
Gerry Nelson:
Yeah, for sure. And moving further east, we have the Nova Scotia Blind Golf Association, operated by NSBGA president Boyd Stewart. Boyd is here this week as well with his wonderful wife, Jackie, and Boyd has been a blind golfer in Nova Scotia for almost 10 years now, I want to say, and Boyd has been working really, really hard to maintain the operation of the Brian MacLeod Memorial Tournament. He does that every year and every third year, he hosts the Canadian Open out there in Nova Scotia as well, doesn't he?
Darren:
That's right. And that's next year for them.
Gerry Nelson:
Boyd is also always kicking the tires of new potential blind golfers out there. And I think at last count there's two or three potentially new blind golfers that are ready to come on board. And we always mention Nova Scotia, but we don't want our viewers to think that we're only limiting blind golf to Nova Scotia out there in the Maritimes. If you live in PEI, Newfoundland, New Brunswick, wherever, and you want to come out and play golf, you are more than welcome. We'll make arrangements for you to meet up with somebody from Blind Golf Canada. We would love nothing more than to be able to stage a Canadian Open in one of those Maritime provinces. Nova Scotia is the only one that I've ever been to, and that's something that we very seldom mention about blind golf, is it so creates the opportunity to travel.
I've been places that I never would've been to otherwise had not been for blind golf. So let's say Quebec and the Maritimes, we would love to come out and have a tournament in your wonderful provinces, and we're always working to make things bigger and better for blind golfers in Canada, from a provincial level to a regional level, of course, to a national level. And some golfers, elite level golfers, will go on to play at events such as the World Championships or the Vision Cup, which is a Ryder Cup style event between Team North America and Team World to be held at TPC Sawgrass in September. So we've got another week to go here at the greens of Renton. We are just now in our first full day. We have the practice round this afternoon and the Ontario Provincial Stableford Championships on Tuesday, Monday, Tuesday?
Darren:
Monday, Tuesday.
Gerry Nelson:
Monday, Tuesday. We have an off day on Wednesday and then the Canadian Open on Thursday and Friday. And unfortunately, we have to go home sometime after Friday. We'd like to stay all summer.
Darren:
And I just wanted to give a shout to our Canadian players representing us in Canada at that event in September. And there's yourself going to represent us and our reigning world champion, Canadian champion Kiefer Jones, Derek Kibblewhite from Calgary, Alberta, and also Julie Maroney, our lady golfer from Victoria, BC. So we want to wish you guys all good luck in representing us out there.
Gerry Nelson:
Well, thank you for that, buddy. And I would certainly like to echo your thoughts and congratulate my fellow teammates, Derek and Kiefer. They've been on Vision Cup teams before. This is a first time for Julie, and we just love the fact that Julie is representing the blind and partially-sighted women golfers. And we couldn't be more excited for Julie and her husband Pierce, and we look forward to gathering at Sawgrass in September.
Darren:
That's going to be amazing, a great experience for all of you and more memories in blind golf for you.
Gerry Nelson:
Darren, it's been 10 years now since the formation of Blind Golf Canada. You played a very integral role in those 10 years in the position of vice president of administration. And I will definitely say my right hand, because I don't think we could accomplish what we do in blind golf here in Canada without your input and daily phone calls and emails and it's just so nice to be able to pick up the phone and bounce things off you. That's the last 10 years. What do you see happening in the next 10? Where would you like to see us go?
Darren:
That'll be a lot more phone calls and emails, but I'd certainly want to see us grow our membership and by doing so, that is bringing the youth board growing the game that way, getting more ladies involved, growing that way and by doing so, I would like to see us get more corporate sponsors supporting us and helping us grow, as well, as an organization. That's a big part there, I believe, that we need to hit on.
Gerry Nelson:
I think, buddy, you have hit the nail pretty much on the head with every item in your answer there. I can't add to that too much at all. I don't know where I'll be 10 years from now, but I hope at least for the next few, anyway, that I can remain involved with the growth of blind golf in Canada, because it is definitely growing and somehow, some way, we'll be able to take a look at things in 10 years' time and hopefully check off a lot of the boxes that you just made reference to. But I know for sure, if nothing else, it'll be exciting and I'm excited as president and you as vice president to see what we can't get done in the next 10 years.
Darren:
Yep. I've only had 10 short years and I certainly look forward to those next 10 and what we can do and accomplish together.
Gerry Nelson:
Darren, we know for a long time that the dream of Dr. Haruhisa Handa, the philanthropist who is in charge of funding the International Blind Golf Association, his goal is to see blind golf in the Paralympics. We both know that blind golf on its own is a far ways away from that, and some believe that on its own, blind golf will never get to the Paralympics. But as part of a Paralympic organization, there is a newly-formed Paragolf Canada Association. Where do you see us being at in terms of not only blind golf, but in conjunction with other disabled golfers? Do you ever see us getting to the Paralympics, maybe that route? Going that route?
Darren:
Absolutely. Yeah. You mentioned the newly-formed Paragolf Canada, and I think through those routes, we can reach our goal of getting to the Paralympics. Paragolf Canada has a lot of members already within Canada, with Paragolf Ontario in particular, and many members across Canada joining and lot of our blind golfers have joined that as well. And they just recently competed at the first inaugural US Adaptive Golf Open. And of course our Kiefer Jones was there representing us and won his category. But through Paragolf Canada and that affiliation, I think we can certainly achieve that. And hopefully on a global level, some of our other member associations will follow suit with their para sport organizations within as well. And by that, we can maybe reach Dr. Handa's ultimate goal of seeing blind golf in the Paralympics.
Gerry Nelson:
I'm going to put you on the spot for a quick second here. Do you have any idea in terms of a projected timeline, or are we still too far out to really determine that yet?
Darren:
It's still in its infant stages, I believe, and it's going to be some time, I think. But we got to work and work together and get on the same page with everybody. And the sooner we can do that, the better off we are and the closer we can get to our goals.
Gerry Nelson:
Well, exactly. And it's a dream, it's a goal, and the only way they are ever achieved is to never quit dreaming and never quit working. And I don't think we're in any kind of danger of anything like that happening at Blind Golf Canada, are we?
Darren:
Absolutely not. We have a great board of directors with vision and energy and moving forward for the next 10 years, I think we're going to just keep moving further and farther ahead and through that, hopefully the Paragolf aspect will follow suit.
Gerry Nelson:
Someday come to a fruition.
Darren:
Correct, yes. That's our goal.
Gerry Nelson:
Right on. Good answer. Well, everyone, we're going to pretty much wrap it up for this episode and you can see that it was an awfully long break for some of us between 2019 and 2022. We're back, more excited than ever. We have the Western Canadian Championships under our belt. This week, we're at the greens at Renton in Simcoe, Ontario for the OVIG Provincial and the Canadian Open. And in a couple of weeks' time, we are out in Truro, Nova Scotia for the Brian MacLeod Memorial. We'll have more to report on our next episode. And before we go, Darren, how would you like to say thanks to all of our sponsors again and oh, and I almost forgot, please tell the viewers where they can get us now and listen or view our podcast.
Darren:
Yes. We'd want you to check us out on YouTube, BGC Podcast, as well as all the other podcast platforms like Spotify, Buzzsprout, et cetera. And I want to just also thank AMI Media, the Canadian Council of the Blind, CNIB Foundation, all our Lion's Clubs across Canada, and ISPS Handa. Thank you.
Speaker 1:
This has been the Blind Golf Canada Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe on YouTube and your favorite podcast platforms. Thanks for tuning in.
