Speaker 1 00:00:05 Hey there, Aaron here, ES team, the editor of the disability and progress podcast. And I just want to wish you a disclaimer before this week's show. This is a rerun from October 15th, 2020, which just happened to be in the midst of our fall membership drive. We are not in the midst of a drive seeing we had a recent successful one. So your money is always welcome, but we're not in a drive right now. It's only a repeat now Q the opening thing.
Speaker 2 00:01:34 Um, good evening. This is disability and progress you to do cafe 90.3, FM Minneapolis and KFC dot O R G. My name is Sam. I'm the host of this show. Charlene doll. My research team is actually with me. It's about time and dining us. And tonight the topic blind golf, no, not the golf ball, but people that do it are, and we'll be talking about that. We are with Kurt Jones. Hi Kurt. Hi Charlene. Good evening, everybody. We haven't heard that voice in a long time. Um, and we do have, it is a special night besides, um, besides, uh, blind golf talking about that. And besides that it is national white cane day. Everyone, did you know that? Yes. Hurt? Did you know that? I did not know that it is. It totally is. So pet your cane a couple of times because you know, your cane doesn't have four legs.
Speaker 2 00:02:38 Um, and it is pled tonight. So this is pledged night and we, we have this week and next week, and we're, you know, kind of calling on you guys to be our support network as we've been here and been your support network during this COVID time. And we'll keep being your support network, but we need some from you in a monetary form and would love to hear from
[email protected]. It really is important. Um, we do exist that way and, um, we do try to bring you information that is worthy to yours, your environment, and your, you know, you in general, even if you don't do it, you, if it's valuable to be educated and know about it, right. Kurt
Speaker 3 00:03:29 That's right. That's right.
Speaker 2 00:03:32 Uh, Charlene, is there anything more you wanna say before we carry on Charlene, anything more you want to say before we carry on? No, we just need everybody to listen to us and if you could spare a dime drop, drop it because we sure need it to keep going. This is a cafe that org we're on disability and progress. And, um, let's start out by, so Kurt, thank you again for joining us. And I want to talk about your history because you know, blind golf is a sport, but it's, you are not new to blind sports. I'm not sure what other, you know, blind sports. It's kind of weird, but it is the insinuating that you are blind. And these are the sports that you're doing that are specific to your disability. Um, so talk about your history with blind sports and how you went from there to get involved with golf.
Speaker 3 00:04:35 Well, my, I guess my first introduction to any bias sport was probably beat ball, which I started playing about 1980 or so, uh, played for the Minneapolis team BSF, which stood for braille sports foundation.
Speaker 2 00:04:53 Ah, yes. I've heard of them. Yes.
Speaker 3 00:04:54 And it was a fun bunch of guys and gals we'd play and we'd go off on tournaments around the country and different national tournaments in the site like that. And, uh, from beat ball, I got into gold ball for a little while, but that's it, that's a hard game.
Speaker 2 00:05:11 It's brutal sport that gives you some bruises,
Speaker 3 00:05:17 Especially when they went from not playing on match to just playing on the
Speaker 2 00:05:22 Summer.
Speaker 3 00:05:23 And I only did that for a little while. Um, well actually, you know, before beat ball, I did a little bit of, uh, uh, uh, cross country skiing with ski for light, uh, for a couple of years. Um, and then from goalball and beat ball, I moved into a darts, which generally is, I'm not sure if it is or not. Um, but yeah, we did. I did that for several years. And when I lived down in the twin cities, you know, we have, um, there was, uh, still is buying, buying the dart league. Uh, I don't know. I think, I guess we had five or six different teams, um, in the league. And, uh, I did that for well ever to seven, eight, nine, 10 years, something like that. And then probably, probably, uh, and then after I retired, my wife and I moved up North here, we will live up by Fergus falls, Minnesota.
Speaker 3 00:06:21 And, uh, I had, uh, a friend of mine from high school Perry newest, um, came up one day and for a couple of days and we were just hanging around one afternoon and we said, uh, Hey, let's just squat to a driving range for a while and you know, hit a bucket of balls. So we never, never done it. So we went out to a local driving range and did that and went pretty well. And out of that, we, I knew there was a blind golf, golf league. I didn't know how big it was, but I knew that there was a blind golf league that they had buying, uh, at least one blind tournament, national tournament. So got online and we checked it out and it was a lot, a lot bigger than we than we thought it was. Um, and that was about three years ago, I guess. So here we are today and, you know, started going off and going, playing tournaments and you're there.
Speaker 2 00:07:21 Okay. So for me, I am a little bit golf dumb, so I presume I'm not the only one. So tell me, how does barring the blind in general? How do you play golf in general? Just describe the game
Speaker 3 00:07:39 Actually blind golf is not that much different than regular golf. We don't, the rules are all the same. The only difference is, uh, you have a coach that lines up your shot line lined you up and, and that's all he does. Uh, he'll tell you like, you know, how far the shot is, you know, a hundred yards or whatever. Uh,
Speaker 2 00:08:02 But when you're on a pretend, I'm, I'm, um, you're introducing me to the golf game. So how do I know, how, how far is it like how many holes? I do know you have to hit this ball into holes.
Speaker 3 00:08:15 Well, you have to know a little bit about the game if you're going to play it. So, uh, you know, is it an 18 hole courses and a nine hole course? Uh, how, what, what power you're playing power means, uh, how many shots you should be able to get the ball in the hole? Like a par three means you have, you have, you should looking get that ball in the hole in three, three shots. And it's usually about 150 yards, 200 yards, something like that. Um, power five is a lot further. A lot of times it's around 400 yards. Um, and w in, so, you know, you got to know a little bit about, you got to learn to learn a little bit about game, if you're going to go out and do it. Um, I didn't know a lot about it until, until we started, I'd met, I didn't know all the rules and the terms and stuff like that. Uh, so I'm still not, I don't know if I know them all yet, but, um,
Speaker 2 00:09:09 How many irons do you play with?
Speaker 3 00:09:11 Oh, man. Um, I think I have four irons, four or five irons, about three or four woods, a driver, a putter.
Speaker 2 00:09:26 I don't even know the difference between those
Speaker 3 00:09:29 There, you got numbers on them. Um, we'll call it an iron. It's totally different kind of club than a, than a wood. I mean, um, you know, and that's, that's where the coach comes in, too, where he'll say, yeah, you probably want to use a seven iron here, you know, cause you want more loft. And the, the, the, the, the number means what, what, how the club is, uh, Oh, what's the plane of the clubs. So you want to get more loft out of the ball or whatever, like a pitchy, trunk it up there under the, if you're maybe 30, 40 yards out, you just want to kind of chunk it up onto the green, um,
Speaker 2 00:10:08 Obstacles that you have to ever throw.
Speaker 3 00:10:10 Oh yeah. Oh yeah. There's water. There's Sam traps. There's um, you know, there's long grass there's so yeah, there's always something in the way.
Speaker 2 00:10:24 And so generally you play with how many you play with, you said four. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:10:31 Well, I have property in my golf bag. I think I have about, I don't know, nine, 10 clubs, something like that.
Speaker 2 00:10:39 And do they stay good for a long time? Yeah. How often do you have to replace them?
Speaker 3 00:10:44 Had your bus. I'm an ass, but yeah, but generally, yeah, they pretty good. Um, um, I'm serious. I guess I have never seen it, but I've heard stories where guys have taken their whole seven golf clubs is throwing them in the, in, into, uh, into the water. And there's some that gets so mad at him and blamed can't blame the tools, you know?
Speaker 2 00:11:03 Yeah. But, um, it's, uh, it's one of those games. That's soul,
Speaker 3 00:11:10 It's a fun, but it can be very frustrating. And I had someone ask me one time, why do you pay money to get this frustrated? Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:11:19 Um, but it it's fun.
Speaker 3 00:11:22 Again, the clubs you can, you know, are themselves being, if, if, if you're just starting out, I sure wouldn't go by in an expensive set of clubs because you don't know if you're going yeah. You can go to Goodwill or something like that and get a good, get a, get a set of clubs for not much
Speaker 2 00:11:40 If you like it. All right. Thanks. Kurt. Tell us a little bit of history about the United States blind golf association, the vine golf. Yes. Blind golf
Speaker 3 00:11:54 Association is 75 years old. We kind of, we kind of wiped this year off last summer. We're not counting up because there's absolutely nothing happened. No, there were no tournaments. There was nothing because of Corona.
Speaker 2 00:12:10 I was playing with their mic.
Speaker 3 00:12:14 Um, it started right out of world war two, basically. Uh, two of the big starters in the game were, um, a guy named Joel is diarrhea and Charlie Boswell. And they were, you know, they became blind too. And they came out and started playing golf. Uh, I'm not sure who started them, you know, gave him the idea or anything like that. But back then, one of the guys I was involved with it, it helped get him going with it in this kind of thing was Bob hope. Uh, in fact, uh, one of the people on the board Lynn was REO is Joel, was his daughter. And she, she, you know, she's told me stories or, you know, she's met Bob hope and all these golfers back in the sixties, um, are, you know, Sam Snead and all the big guys that were on the front of the PGA tours, um, were, you know, help get light and gold started. But, uh, it just, you know, became bigger over the years, over the year now years, five years. And, uh, like I say, it was last year though. So this year we're going to celebrate our 75th year. Uh, hopefully, hopefully
Speaker 2 00:13:35 This is KVI 90.3 FM Minneapolis, and we're kfa.org. And we have Charlene doll and me I'm Sam and Kurt Jones. Who's my spectacular golfer here. And I forgot to mention my engineer at the, at the beginning of the show of my apologies. She is the awesome one who has been engineering. So many of my episodes during COVID time, um, Annie Harvey, and she has been doing that. So thank you, Annie. And we would not, none of us would be here if it wasn't for you guys who listen and pledge. And that brings me to why, you know, every once in a while we need to do this and have a pledge shell. And, you know, Kurt knows that we run, you know, we, we have, uh, a studio and that we have a lot of stuff and we need to keep it updated. And Kurt Kurt's interesting because Chris has been in my, on my, on this show, like a lot of times.
Speaker 3 00:14:39 Yeah.
Speaker 2 00:14:39 You're, you're a, you're almost a partner. Yeah. Like at least six times, I think, I think it was counting as like Kurt used to be involved in a band called Tamarack. So he came on the show. Some of you older listeners who may remember that course. Um, my favorite person from there was Dave, but that's okay. Cause yeah. Yeah. I'm sorry. You know, I love you, dude. Um, and, and also you, were you, your band played in at the ADA, um, celebration? Um, not too long ago, so
Speaker 3 00:15:17 15 or Sigma, 2015 or 16, something like that. Maybe 17. I don't remember. I
Speaker 4 00:15:21 Don't remember when I think it was 60. Yeah,
Speaker 2 00:15:24 It was 16. I think. So. Um, so that, that is, you know, he's been on several times and how he just keeps coming on. Well, just keep doing some fun things, Kurt, but we need you guys to, to donate step up to the plate, donate. It's like taking the iron and putting the monetary amount through the web, uh, web. What do you call it? Web wires and,
Speaker 3 00:15:57 Well, you are really reaching for a golfer now
Speaker 2 00:16:00 Trying to reach for a golfer now. Well, help me out here, Kurt,
Speaker 3 00:16:04 I think that that wouldn't quite work with ever in driving that radio station down the down the fairway.
Speaker 4 00:16:12 There you go. Yeah, there you go. So all you have to do is go onto kff.org and it'll be right there for you to make your donation. Okay.
Speaker 2 00:16:23 So cafe.org, that's right. So easy peasy. And actually it's even easier with the, with the app. I will say that if you have an app on your smartphone, it's very easy to do so Kurt, can you explain, you'd started to explain a little bit of how blind golf is played and you said, um, tell us a little bit about what the, what the differences are and what, how you find your teammate or whatever you want to call it,
Speaker 3 00:16:51 Because there's, I mean, there's three categories in blind golf and B one B2, and they're all geared on your, your visual ability. If you're like, I'm a B one, cause I'm totally blind. And then, you know, B2 and B3 are B3. You can pretty good, pretty good vision, but not quite, you know, enough, you know, just enough probably to get in trouble. And then there's B to clean that. And B ones like myself are the ones that have to wear a dark glasses when you play, you are total. Um, and again, it's, uh, you, you find your own coach usually because, you know, you usually get her friend or relative or something like that, that, that is available whenever, whenever you play a tournament or, um, want to go out and play on your, but you know, the beauty of it is you don't have to have, you know, like I say, the coach I've used most is like my buddy Perry from, from high school.
Speaker 3 00:17:58 But if I want to go out and play golf, you know, around here, you know, I can go and take my son or my son-in-law or my daughter, or, you know, whatever and go out and go out and play golf. It's one of the, what's one of the blind sports that is so easy to meld into, to, uh, you know, regular, you know, regular golf. Uh, my, uh, family, brothers and cousins for years held up, uh, they get together one day, one Saturday, every summer and have a tournament, you know, between all of them. Well, I never played because I, you know, I never played golf. So about two years ago was the first time that I was able to go up and, and participate in the, you know, in this, in this family tournament, um, in it. And you know, that, that's the, that's the nice thing about it. You don't have to have, you don't have to have special equipment. You don't have to have any special course or, or anything like that. All you need is someone that'll help you line your shot up.
Speaker 2 00:19:04 So, um, can you touch the ball? Uh, no, you cannot like, can you at least feel it with your club though? You,
Speaker 3 00:19:14 You can do that. You can, you know, but usually what happens is the coach just puts the ball wherever you're comfortable. It's usually about an N for me, it's about an inch inch behind the ball and he just, you know, sets, sets the club down behind the ball, uh, cause you can't move the ball at all. And, and uh, and he makes sure that I'm, you know, not, you know, facing the off, you know, the wrong way. And you know, he might say turn to your left, turn to your right. And, uh, then he just steps out of the way. And you're on your own.
Speaker 2 00:19:47 Is there a special stance you have to use or that you tend to use
Speaker 3 00:19:52 On stance or only grip? Um, yeah, so, no, there's no special not to bind golf. There's not, no, there's just like say every, every golfer has their own, their own stamps.
Speaker 2 00:20:04 Like you talked about B one B2 and B3, do they ever cross play like, yeah.
Speaker 3 00:20:13 Uh, there's also, uh, uh, you know, there, there's two kinds of golf that we played that you can play stroke play, which is, you know, you, uh, count every shot and you know, you want to have a low score and then there's, Stableford which I like to play. And that's where you, according to your handicap and this gets cut a little complicated, but according to your handicap, and don't ask me what mine is.
Speaker 2 00:20:43 I promise you, you, you, you want to get a higher and stable
Speaker 3 00:20:48 For, do you have say, suppose you're playing in a par four, you may have, if you're playing stroke play, you know, you're supposed to be, you should be able to get the ball in the hole and for four shots or, you know, maybe six in Stableford. If according to your, your handicap, you might be able to get two or three extra shots on that, on that, uh, on that par four. So you might, you know, you might get six or seven tries instead of, you know, what, uh, a stroke play would would do. I didn't, I don't play stroke play very much cause I I'm not that good yet.
Speaker 2 00:21:26 So did you know that this was something you were going to like to do? Or did you just kind of try it out thinking, Oh, I'll give it a shot and if I like it, then I'll go and buy clubs.
Speaker 3 00:21:37 I went out and just, like I said, we went out just one afternoon to try it. And they said, well, this is kind of fun. Let's uh, let's, you know, practice a little bit. Let's actually go out, you know? And once we, and well, let me back up after we did that, what I did is I went into our local golf course here and I talked to the golf pro and I said, Hey, would you be willing to give, give me some lessons? And he said, sure. And so then that helped a lot. Um, and then that's when I realized, Hey, this is kind of fun. I could do this, you know, uh, in, uh, you know, I go out and play at a tournament. So I imagine we'll play that great. But, but it's like, we always say, you know, you go out and get play, and then you come back into the clubhouse and you have a couple of beers and no one cares what your scores were. You just, you know,
Speaker 2 00:22:24 It's comparatively speaking, like for the other sports that you've done, would you consider this hard or is this kind of a easier than some of the other sports
Speaker 3 00:22:36 It's harder? I find it harder, uh, because you're, you're hitting a real little ball and the train is always different sometimes, you know, you're, you're hitting at a slant where the ball is, you know, below your feet. Cause you're, you're lean kind of leaning down a Hill or your, or it's above your feet and every course is different. Um, so yeah, I, I find it. I find, I find the whole harder than be bold. Be bold is easy, but the, what I like about golf is, you know, whether you're 25 or 85, you can play. We have a couple of guys in, um, in our, in our league or in, in the USB GA. Um, I think of John Consolo, he's 86 years old and he's from, I think he's from Connecticut. And, uh, he, he still plays in tournaments. Um, in fact, when I met him two years ago, he was 86 and he had just decided he couldn't downhill ski anymore.
Speaker 2 00:23:44 That's a fad,
Speaker 3 00:23:46 Couldn't do it anymore. But, um, it's golf is a game you can play, you know, if you know, whether you're good or bad, it doesn't matter all your life. You know, if you want to,
Speaker 4 00:23:58 It's actually considered a lifetime sport activity. Yeah.
Speaker 3 00:24:02 So what I told my grandson a couple of years ago, you know, he was, uh, he was eight or nine, then I said, you know, you can, I know you don't believe this, but there's gonna come a day when you can't play hockey anymore. And play golf learned a lot too, because the golf courses were only allowing one person to a golf cart. Well, it doesn't do a blind person any good, you know? So the kind of the standard joke was, well, would you tie a rope on him? We can run it along behind him on a leash, you know, and the cart, you know, so that was, that was, that was one of the problems with, with playing it at the beginning of last year. So,
Speaker 2 00:24:45 Okay. Well, I was just taking my own little break and Annie told me there was no more station breaks. So my bad, I didn't want that.
Speaker 3 00:24:54 One of the things that you were mentioning, other sports that I've tried, I forgot. I totally forgot about it. But, um, I had Mo I don't know, a few years ago that involved with, um, hunting deer hunting with, uh, with a phone arrow or a right. And it's another thing that if a person, if they, that I'll get into this a little bit of golf too, but if they, if they're losing their sight and they want to continue to hunt or golf, they can continue. They can do it with a special equipment for hunting anyway.
Speaker 2 00:25:29 All right, well, we need to take another little pledge break and let people know. You're tuned to cafe 90.3 FM and carefree I D O R G. This is disability and progress. I'm Sam, Jasmine, Charlene dolls with me as well. Kurt Jones is with me as well. Annie Harvey is my engineer and we are in the midst of our pledge drive. And we are depending on you to support us and keep us going. And you can do that by
[email protected], Charlene, why should they do this?
Speaker 4 00:26:07 They keep us on the air so we can keep talking about all these awesome things that people do with their disabilities. And also we share information that people need to know. And if we don't have the resources to do that, it's a lot harder to get reach people that this is a pretty easy way to, to meet up. Now that we're on the web, we, we can talk to everybody all over the world.
Speaker 2 00:26:33 That's true. And I have to say, you know, I think, um, being COVID time is one of those, one of those, two things, one of those things, everyone is so sick about, about, but, but it is here and we are here and there really is no way around it. And it is what it is until we get out of here. So, um, very important. We know you guys are listening to the radio, whether it's via radio or web, or your iPhone, your, or your magic speaker, more than ever, probably because you're stuck at home more. Um, and so that's a great time to pledge. So you can go to cafe.org, uh, or on your iPad, iPhone computer, and please give what you can. So Shannon,
Speaker 3 00:27:24 You can't go anymore right now. So give some money to them.
Speaker 2 00:27:28 Yes, exactly. Give it to me what you would give, you know, paying a tab at the bar, how's that,
Speaker 4 00:27:37 Oh, that's a lot of money for some,
Speaker 2 00:27:43 And some people it's like 20 bucks, you know, it's like, okay. So a little goes a long ways. Well, I will see, I think Charlene, you were next on the docket. Okay.
Speaker 4 00:27:53 Uh, well we see equipment, uh, but is there a minimal or you obviously you've mentioned that there is, you could play golf as long as you can stand up and hold the club, but for someone to join the, uh, United States, uh,
Speaker 3 00:28:14 I'm trying to think there is an it's it's well, I shouldn't, let me kind of clarify that a little bit. If you have a guardian say you're under 21, I think you could play if you have a parent or guardian with you in, at the tournaments, but we'll also what we do around the country is, uh, usually with tournaments or, or without tournaments, uh, hold a lot of junior golf clinics to get kids from, uh, you know, different blind schools and communities, uh, you know, people in the blind people in the communities, you know, I'll, I'll to learn how to play. Um, so that's a big, that's a big part of our, of our organization too, is educating people about it. And, you know, uh, we don't limit it to blind people, anybody that wants to come out and have a junior and, you know, play in a junior clinic, I've never put one on this. I'm not really, you know, I'm not, I don't know a whole lot about, about those, but, uh, they, we get a lot of, a lot of success in those, uh,
Speaker 2 00:29:22 Explain what a golf competition would look like.
Speaker 3 00:29:28 Um, well, like a tournament I would have, we would do a tournament. You mean? Yep. Well, actually we're going to have one up here in Fergus falls to be the first golf tournament in that I called anyway. I don't think there's ever been one, uh, July 19th through, uh, May 21st of this year in this or this next year. And what happens is okay. That's, that's, I believe that's a Sunday through Tuesday. So people usually come in on Saturday from, um, uh, around the country and they come in and, you know, usually the, the, the organization pays for your, your hotels and your, uh, um, meals. A lot of them, some, some meals, not all meal, not all the meals. And so you come in on a Saturday, hang out, and then on Sunday, there's always a say that the first day, there's always a practice around where you go out with your coach, go out to the golf course and just go out and play golf, you know, get, get to know the course a little bit, all 18 holes. If you want, you can play three. If you want, you can play as many as you want. And then Monday the game that the tournament starts, they usually around eight, nine, 10 o'clock in the morning. And they 18 holes, usually old goal, maybe three and a half, four hours.
Speaker 2 00:30:55 How many people do you usually have
Speaker 3 00:30:57 That attendance? Um, while at our nationals last year, I think we had around 40, that was out in Las Vegas. Um, uh, I, I've only, I've been in only three tournaments because, because of this last summer, everything was canceled. I played in, uh, yeah, three tournaments, uh, Arizona in, uh, eight in April, a year and a half ago. And I think they were about, I think they're about 35, 38 players in that one. And then we played, uh, I played in New York at the, uh, for the guiding eyes dog school. They always, they used to, they have a, uh, a fundraiser and they, they bring, uh, if, if you're involved with the, with the board or the, any kind of organizing the golf thing, they invite you out and you play for a couple of days out there and the money goes toward, uh, they bring in all kinds of people from New York, uh, you know, to, uh, you know, a lot of money. And they, they play for, to raise money for the, for the guiding items, uh, dogs school that I played in the national tournament down in LA, Las Vegas last September. And they go, yeah, September, and then everything just shut down after that.
Speaker 2 00:32:28 Charlene, not for me. No, it's your turn. So I want to know, is there a hall of fame for blind golf? Yes. There is a
Speaker 3 00:32:40 Blind, both hall of fame and, uh, sadly, my name is not there yet.
Speaker 2 00:32:44 Okay. Well, you've only been doing it. How long did you say three years? Well, his dude,
Speaker 3 00:32:53 Um, I'll be honest. I don't know a lot about it. Um, there, we're going to have, um, there's a hall of fame trophy, and hopefully if we play this next year, they're going to have the hall. Um, we're going to have into the nationals in Florida and then the next day or so out in St. Augustine, Florida. And that's where they're going to, I think they're going to do some hall of fame stuff out there for that, but I, you know, like I said, you gotta be a really good golfer to be, to get on that, you know, get involved.
Speaker 2 00:33:33 Well, there's still time, there's still time. So you're part of the board. Um, right. And so what are your responsibilities as far as being on the board
Speaker 3 00:33:48 Organizing, helping me help organize tournaments, uh, you know, redoing bylaws, like every year, every other organization, um, we, you know, have elections, uh, for, for, uh, you know, board members, uh, keeping our website up, even keeping the looking good. Um, people are on the board. Uh, let me think. I think there's eight of us. No, we got myself. And then we have a gentleman from New Zealand, New Jersey, somebody from Massachusetts, Nashville, uh, San Francisco, Atlanta, and Oregon and Florida.
Speaker 2 00:34:31 How long is your gut? Do you guys like, is your term, how long is your term
Speaker 3 00:34:37 Three years? Uh, this year, you know, we're, we're adding an extra year because we're not having a national meeting or, you know, organized because we usually have those at the nationals. And, uh, that's when elections are held. So we're going to just put that off until it makes elections the next year.
Speaker 2 00:34:58 And how long can you keep being on the board? Like, could you stay on it for a long time, as long as people?
Speaker 3 00:35:05 I'm not sure, but I believe, I believe there's no term limits or nothing like that. It's like being in the Senate and there's no term limits.
Speaker 2 00:35:14 Oh boy. And everything there's politics,
Speaker 3 00:35:19 But, you know, that's, you know, but I, I believe that, you know, if you're on there for two terms, two three-year term, you know, you, you, you should get off and let somebody else get in, listen, let some new blood in you, you leave the same people on all the time, you know, first off then nobody runs, I think, any organization or any organization, I don't care what it is should have new members all the time.
Speaker 2 00:35:46 Yeah. Yeah. So can you play on any golf course with your coach? You've never run into any problems, somebody, so you can't play like that. Right.
Speaker 3 00:35:59 And, and then I don't, I don't think anybody has that. I know of, uh, uh, I've only played on, I mean, I haven't been on a lot of, well, I put on I ever six different ones, I guess. Um, and I we've never run into a problem. Usually people are just kind of shocked that you're, that you're doing it, you know, and all that is.
Speaker 2 00:36:21 Yes. So, uh, can you, I mean, do you get a lot of, uh, comments when other people see you golfing
Speaker 3 00:36:34 Some, you know, like I say, people I could do that what's hard is, uh, is, uh, try talking to someone that is totally excited in putting on the dark glasses and then lining them up and saying, you know, hit, hit the ball. You know, they, you know, um, not, not to say that I hit it every time because I don't either, but, um, um, that's, that's always kind of fun to do.
Speaker 2 00:37:02 Do you have any women players?
Speaker 3 00:37:04 Yeah, we do. And we're always looking for more, um, uh, we have, I don't know how many we have in the USB three or four, I think. And we'd certainly like to have more while we're on, we're kind of on a campaign drive to bolster a membership, get more people involved and, and younger people. And when women and, uh, you know, cause it's like any organization, you know, you get every, you know, when you get a bunch of guys in there over 60 years old, you know, you want to get, you want to keep the organization organization going. So you want to, you know, get, get some younger people in there.
Speaker 2 00:37:39 Yeah. The smarter gender, the better looking gender that's right. I'm just going to take a step in here and say, this is KPI 90.3, FM Minneapolis kpi.org. This is our pledge week. So we encourage you and hope that you will go to cafe.org pledge what you can and support the show, the station and everything that you believe in now is an especially important time politically and otherwise. So to keep us going, that's how you find out all about what's going on current. Um, can, do you, do you feel like you play at the same pace as sighted people?
Speaker 3 00:38:25 Yeah, yeah, yeah. You do. Because, uh, I think so. Um, you know, because once, once you get, you get, get the routine with your coach, you know, it only takes, uh, you know, maybe a second or two to, you know, jump out of the car, line up your shot and, and, and, and go from there. Um, and a lot of times in tournaments, we play what to, what they call ready golf is once, once, once everybody's driven off the tee, you know, you go to your ball and if nobody's in your way, you just take your shot. You know, a lot of times in, uh, in golf, if you're, you know, you, you take turns or if you're, you know, caused you get first shot, you know, but in, in ready golf, like we like to play just to keep it going as long as nobody's in your way. And you're not interfering with anybody else's shot. And you just go ahead and take your, you know, take your shot with your coach.
Speaker 4 00:39:25 How many golf balls do you usually go through?
Speaker 3 00:39:28 Well, it depends on how many hats do we have out there. Uh, you lose a lot of you lose some in water, you know? Um, my, my biggest hazard of what I hate is our sand traps. I hate them with a passion. So I'm not, I'm not, I'm no good at them once I landed one. And that used to be the only different rule in blind golf that wasn't in regular golf is you, if you go on a sand trap, the golf, the blind golfer can do what they call ground gear club. You can, you can touch the sand with your club in. And I think, I think you can now in regular gum too, but I'm not sure, but before it used to be, they couldn't do that. They had to just swing at the ball and not touch the same.
Speaker 0 00:40:16 Okay.
Speaker 4 00:40:22 Oh, where are we here to kind of, so how popular isle, how popular is it with, uh, well in the blind community, do do peop uh, is it popular or is it people don't know about it
Speaker 3 00:40:38 In Minnesota? I don't think a lot of people know about it or have ever have ever fought to get involved with it. And that's one thing I had done. One reason I wanted to do the show and who, uh, get more people involved. Um, cause I know everybody out there with your side that even if you're saying, you know, somebody whose uncle is blind or not even blind, but partially sighted sighted, or, you know, a neighbor Jim used to be a good golfer, but then he lost his sight a little bit. Anybody couldn't do it anymore, but when he could do it, our, or, you know, on married, whoever. So we really want to stress that, that, you know, even if you don't want to play in tournaments, you know, just get out and, you know, get off the coach, you know, and get out and play well. Yeah, it's a great bullshit. It's a great social social thing. You know, not only on the course with them, like I said, before, you get done with the course, you go into the clubhouse and you hang out and, you know, it's people realize that, Hey, fine, people can do stuff besides, uh, watch TV or read a book or whatever, which is nothing wrong with doing that. You may enjoy both of them, but you know, get out and it gets them out doing something.
Speaker 2 00:42:01 And why don't you talk a little bit once bar about the tournament that's coming up in Minnesota and when it's happening,
Speaker 3 00:42:09 It is like I said, July 19th through the 21st up at Fergus falls, public golf course. Um, if what I would really like is, is, is okay. Uh, if, if people are interested in joining the USB GA, they can go online, us blind golf, and, you know, just find the, find the registration forms, um, online there, fill them out. Uh, you have to get, get, uh, uh, I, what do you call verification, I guess, whatever, from, from a doctors and what your eye, your site level is, um, then, uh, somebody, uh, our, our, um, what do you call it? Oh, my stewards, uh, personal Kayla drum. And she's our new person culture when I go. But yeah, yeah, she, her job is to conduct new members, recruiter to recruiter, recruiter. Thank you. And, uh, and she, she would contact you and, and get you involved. And, you know, man, I'd love to get about five or six golfers, you know, from, from the Minnesota area up here, playing are playing in our tournament next summer. I think it'd be great.
Speaker 4 00:43:28 Do they also recruit like, some people might want to do it, but they don't know anybody who would be able to coach them. Do they help with that?
Speaker 3 00:43:38 If you, if you found, I, I think most people would be able to find a coach, you know, a brother, a son, a daughter, you know, whatever wife,
Speaker 4 00:43:53 Oh, I was thinking about people in the lower economic situation where they might not, they've seen golf or they've heard about golf and they might want to do it, but they don't know anybody. No, they don't.
Speaker 2 00:44:06 You might necessarily be interested in them to help them.
Speaker 3 00:44:10 Uh,
Speaker 2 00:44:12 Maybe that's something in the future that they could think about doing is, you know, kind of having some uncommon people,
Speaker 3 00:44:21 Somebody, you know, we, we found one, uh, um, person down in, uh, uh, great bear Lake now. And she, she, she is interested. So I've always said if somebody wants to play golf, um, and it works out, I'd love to go out with them and show them how the game is played and how to do it. And coach would do it. And, um, just, just to get them introduced to the game, you know, to begin with then, you know, see where it goes from there.
Speaker 2 00:44:49 Cool. All right. Give your website once more for
Speaker 3 00:44:53 It is you find golf and all the information is on there that you need to know about blind golf. There's some videos there's, uh, geez. I'm not sure where the history of the history of the sport. Um, you know, actually, you know, I, I, I guess, I don't know if I can do it. Can I, uh, if somebody wants to contact me, they can wildly talk to him about it,
Speaker 2 00:45:15 Go for it. If you can give you a contact, it'll be out there. So if you are okay with that, go ahead.
Speaker 3 00:45:21 I'm fine with it. If they want to call me about golf, I don't mind at all. Uh, my name's Kurt Jones and you can call me at six one seven five one 65 90 (112) 751-6591.
Speaker 2 00:45:38 All right, well, Kurt, we really appreciate you being on, uh, thank you so much for that. Um, we're gonna have Annie, come on and talk about pledging, um, with us, but thank you very much for talking about blind golf. I think that's really important. And then we're going to go and we're going to talk about, um, we're going to play a little bit from our beat baseball. We did interview them in July and we're going to play, hopefully play just a little bit by them, but first Annie,
Speaker 5 00:46:14 Hi, I'm Annie Harvey. Um, I have not been on air on this show before ever. So yeah,
Speaker 2 00:46:22 If you had to say I'm Annie Harvey, my disability and progress is a spectacular engine.
Speaker 5 00:46:30 Yes, I'm disability and progress as best and only engineer, um, for now, for now, for now. Um, I've been working on this show, um, for a handful of months. I started working on this show last summer, um, and working with Sam exemplifies so much of why I feel like CA cafe is important. And, um, why I, since I'm able, uh, give both money and time to the station, um, I think that cafe, I bring such different programming than other public stations in the twin cities. The things that I learn on this station, um, that are just on air routinely, um, come from such a wide range of, uh, communities and viewpoints and provide useful topical information, um, from different perspectives that genuinely exist here in the twin cities. And, um, I feel good putting, um, my time and sometimes money here at the station because, um, I know that it's going towards, um, bringing information that people aren't getting elsewhere, um, that they can use to go live better, more informed lives. And, um, it's always fun to come do this show because I never, I never know what we're going to talk about. I never, I never not surprised it's, it's always a good time. Well, I know the, I know the overview of the topic because, uh, SAML email it out on her email list, but I never know quite where it's going to go. And I always find out things that are interesting.
Speaker 2 00:48:02 You add that Annie is not only an engineer on my show, but she has her own show that she does. So hats off to you for putting so much time into something you truly believe in, and the listeners can do it too. If you're listening, you can hear me and you should go to cafe that org and give us your support. Do you want to, well, thank you for that. Annie, do you want to, uh, play the last bit of the beat baseball so people can be here if they didn't hear, I also encourage you to go on the podcast because I think this is on the podcast by now, but why don't you play just a little bit of it that they can? Yeah.
Speaker 5 00:48:44 This is a really wonderful interview from earlier this year. Um, about another, uh, blind accessible sport, beat baseball.
Speaker 6 00:48:52 It was developed by a telephone pioneer by the name of Charlie fair banks in Colorado. Um, back around starting in 1964, uh, the first formal team games were played in 1975, uh, in Minneapolis. And, uh, very shortly thereafter St. Paul, uh, he developed the beep baseball for educational and recreational purposes. Um, the game looked a little different than, than it does now. Um, but basically the ball is the same. It's, it's a 16 ounce softball with the sound chamber in it that it emits a beep and the bass is back then were more traffic cone like or children, but as adults tend to do, they saw a good thing and said, huh, we need to modify this game of an audio ball for blind children and turn it into a recreational sport for adults. So it took off, um, and came through Minneapolis and St. Paul and Chicago, but the, uh, telephone pioneers were, uh, very pivotal in the startup of it. And they were retirees from the telephone company. Uh, well, not always retirees, but, uh, uh, employees and retirees. And they have been very supportive of the game ever since, including continuing to manufacturer the baseballs to support the sport
Speaker 7 00:50:35 Volunteer organization in Denver.
Speaker 6 00:50:39 Excellent. So now I want somebody to describe, like what beep a spot is, how do you play it
Speaker 7 00:50:51 Oil? Um, I'll try to describe as best I can beat baseball is a game with naturally two teams and you have six players on each team. You have six on defense and the batter is, uh, has the pitcher and the catcher, which is on his side is on the offensive side. So the pitcher is trying to let the batter hit the ball, and there's a, uh, uh, a sequence to it where he says ready that pitch. And once that happens, the batter swings the bat and the pitcher tries to, um, get the ball to where the bat is coming through. Uh, so the batter can hit it once he hits it, it has to travel 40 feet, uh, and he has to run to a base. There's two bases only. There's not three, there's a first base and a third base once. And the base is about Oh, 48, 50 inches high.
Speaker 7 00:52:04 And he tries to get there before any of the fielders, uh, picks up the ball, uh, if he gets to either of those bases, which is turned on, um, it's, if he gets to the base, it's a run. And if the base, I'm sorry, what is the field or picks up the ball prior to the runner, getting to the base. It's an hour, there are three outs to an inning and a six innings in a game. Um, if, uh, uh, the Jared of Janet could add to that, I, you can do that. Yeah. I think you, I think you nailed it home. Pretty good. Um, and you know, as Janet mentioned at the, at the beginning, I guess, about DNA, um, she is a spotter and so, you know, the spotters are in the field. And so they do call the zone to where the ball is tip. Um, but the goal was basically just to get the ball off the ground, away from the body before the, the runner gets to the base.
Speaker 6 00:53:10 And what kind of sound does do the basis make?
Speaker 7 00:53:16 So the bases are a buzz, uh, and, and the ball is a beat. So, um, you can differentiate the,
Speaker 2 00:53:27 And is the a constant beep or is it have intervals?
Speaker 6 00:53:36 Yeah, it was intervals, but it always beats until you put a pin in it.
Speaker 6 00:53:45 The base is they're activated by a base operator. Who's seated behind home plate with the scorekeeper, and it's a random, the batter. Doesn't know if there'll be running to first or third base. Uh, and it is activated at the, on contact with the ball. A good base runner can run between four and five seconds, the 100 feet down to the base. Uh, these guys can fly and that's not a lot of times they he'll hit well hit ball. Uh, as Greg mentioned, it has to go with a minimum of 40 feet, but many, many hits go anywhere from 80 to 170 feet easily. The spotter is allowed one number one time, one through six, but only that one number one time, uh, fielders can talk to each other as needed, and they often do, uh, to assist in the, making the play. But there's a lot of on the ground body blocking, um, people aren't catching fly balls. That's a rarity in our sport. The base itself I might add is about it. It looks like a football, uh, cackling dummy thing. What do you call those eight inch round four foot high cylinder, uh, implant, and then a one by one foot foam cube that they run for and tackle, um, in an effort to be the field they're fielding the ball.
Speaker 2 00:55:20 Jared, you thought you found an acceptable clip maybe to hear what the bass sounds like. Let's see, let's see if we can do it.
Speaker 6 00:55:28 Yeah. So if you listen closely, you can, you can actually hear, um, a pitcher's cadence as well as the hit and the base.
Speaker 2 00:55:45 Yeah, so I did. So the, the ball has that BPPP and the, the, um, the base has a study pitch pitch. So you don't hear the brakes, um, in that. Okay, cool. Well, thank you for that. It was developed by it and that our friends was a beep baseball, uh, from earlier this summer. Now back to you, Sam, this has been disability and progress. The views expressed on the show are not necessarily those of KPIs, but tonight they probably are. So please pledge. You may go to cafe dot O R G. This is disability on
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