The arc of the club is perfect and the swing strong, sending the white ball into the distance between the tall trees. It is the perfect golf shot on a dank day at Sedlescombe Golf Club. If only Billy McAllister had been able to see it.
For Billy is the most remarkable of golfers: he is totally blind. His story is one of courage, persistence and a comeback from a disability that would have destroyed people of lesser determination.
He had a wife and home, a career in finance and an affluent lifestyle. But nearing his fortieth birthday, he woke up one morning to discover he was blind, the victim of diabetic retinopathy. Within three months, he had lost his job and home, been plunged into divorce and was broke, at one point living rough, taking his few possessions to sleep in the grounds of Knebworth House in Hertfordshire.
The return to a normal life was long and hard with the help of friends and eventually a new wife, Liisa, whom he married two years ago. He found a job with the Department of Work and Pensions, but as a lifelong sports nut – a Liverpool fan from the age of 12 – he needed an outlet. Billy had been a budding snooker star at home in Carrickfergus in Northern Ireland, and tried his hand at blind bowls, but golf seemed to be tugging at his sleeve. He started sitting on a bench at a golf club in Hove, West Sussex, and then practising his swing, first with a broom handle and then with a single club.
The club professional started to give him some lessons and eventually Billy was able to find guides who could take him onto the course to start playing. Today, he is Britain’s No. 1-ranked blind golfer, has travelled the world and has an extraordinary list of titles behind him: he has won not only The Open for blind players in Britain, but the Spanish Open, the Irish Open, the blind section of The Masters in the USA, played for England and at the blind version of the Ryder Cup. The trophy cabinet groans under the weight at his home in Bexhill.
He challenged Justin Rose, the former US Open winner, to play a shot blindfolded. “He just played an air shot,” said Billy with a chuckle. Bryson DeChambeau, a two-times US Open winner, fared no better. He shanked the ball. “Suddenly, these guys realised just how difficult it is to play when you can’t see a thing.”
They are happy memories, but this year, Billy has played only one tournament, for he has run out of assistants to help him around the course. Liisa helps where she can, but the job of guide to a blind golfer – and one at the very top of the game – requires fitness and the ability to line up Billy for his shots at the flag. Now Billy is desperate to find someone who can return him to the golf course to add to his trophy collection.
“I play at quite a fast pace, so I need someone who can keep up,” Billy said. “The problem for the guide is putting the ball down and then setting me up the for the shot. I know the yardage and I can sense the wind, so I just need the right club and pointing in the right direction.”
Everyone knows Billy at Sedlescombe where we met on a gloomy afternoon, accompanied by the sound of diggers helping the reconstruction and renovation of the ambitious club just outside Bexhill. He has been adopted as the informal ambassador and the members are supporting his search for a guide. His journey from his birthplace in Northern Ireland to Liverpool then Leicester, Bedford, Brighton and finally Bexhill, where he works full-time at the Jobcentre, has been a long one, but he has now finally found home with Liisa.
“When the blindness hit me, I was lost,” Billy, now 58, told me. “I had no idea what to do, and I changed. I was frustrated and afraid of what was happening. You don’t realise how much your life is going to change. Those first years were terrible; I was homeless and penniless and just searching for a way out. I was so lucky to meet Liisa at work and when she asked me out for date, I was at a disadvantage because I couldn’t see her. She told me she was blonde and Scandinavian (she is from Finland), so I knew I couldn’t go wrong.
“Liisa helps me, but being a guide on a professional course would be too much for her. I have been lucky to have had five guides over the years, but it is a big commitment for someone to help me. I still have tournaments to win, but I need help.”
Billy McAllister is a sporting wonder, but without a guide, his career as Britain’s best blind golfer is at risk. Whoever steps up will be taking part in a sporting journey like no other.
Billy can be contacted by email at mcallister2612@gmail.com. If you are blind but want to take up golf, England and Wales Blind Golf is contactable on 07722 458210 or on social media.
