Golfer stays on course despite loss of eyesight.

Byline: INSIDE THE OUTDOORS By Mike Stahlberg The Register-Guard

Eugene native Ron Plath has an official USGA handicap index of 8.1, making him the best golfer many of his competitors on the course will never see.

Not ever see, never see.

For Plath is legally blind, as are the golfers against whom he competes in events sanctioned by the United States Blind Golf Association (USBGA).

Plath, who was born at Sacred Heart Hospital 54 years ago this November and who graduated from Willamette High School in 1968, was one of a half-dozen blind golfers who last month represented the United States in the inaugural Nation's Cup.

Held in Toronto, the event is a Ryder Cup-style competition pitting top blind golfers from the U.S. against Canada's best blind golfers.

Plath was named the U.S. Team's "most valuable" player in its 9 1/2 -6 1/2 victory - even though his individual record was a modest one win, one tie and one loss, good for 1 1/2 points.

So strong was Plath's game the first day, the U.S. coaches teamed him up with a woman golfer to face Canada's two best men in the alternate-shot competition.

"We were up three with four holes to play and somehow lost those last four holes," he said. Still, the strategy paid off, as the Americans won the other alternate-shot matches.

Plath's skill on the golf course was established long before he had to face the loss of his eyesight due to the onset of macular degeneration.

His parents were among the first members of Shadow Hills Country Club in Junction City, where he learned to play. Plath was a member of two Willamette High School golf teams that advanced to the state tournament. He also played basketball at Willamette and at Oregon College of Education in Monmouth. After competing in two sports as a freshman in college, he dropped off the golf team to focus on basketball.

Still, coming out of college, Plath had a 4 handicap with 20-20 vision. The incurable eye disease was diagnosed in 1980, by which time he was an elementary school teacher in the Portland area.

Today, Plath's eyesight is 20-400, meaning he can't even make out the biggest E on those charts in the optometrist's office. At home, he is able to read with the help of special software that projects words onto a 42-inch television screen.

Standing on the golf course, Plath says, "I can see a fuzzy white object at my feet."

Plath may no longer be able to drive a car, but he can still drive a golf ball.

"I've played golf forever and I still have the golf swing," Plath said. "I can usually hit my drive fairly straight, and I have a fairly good short game."

He practices his chipping constantly, and paces off the length of his putts to give him an idea how far back to bring his putter head. He is also able to "feel" the slope of the green through his feet.

"I try to get the first putt within 3 or 4 feet," he said. "Then I can usually see something that looks like the hole."

At the Oregon Golf Association Member's Course in Woodburn, where he is a member, Plath's playing buddies find his ball for him and point out some object - a tree on the skyline or a blurry patch of brown that is a bunker - for him to use as a reference point while lining up his shots.

At USBGA events, each competitor is allowed a "coach," a combination caddy and seeing-eye assistant.

Plath has known about the USBGA for several years, but was loath to acknowledge that it was something he should get involved in.

"I was apprehensive about saying I was part of that group," he said.

With the 2003 International Blind Golf Association Championship coming to his home course, however, it was an opportunity he couldn't pass up.

Plath finished third in the B-3 category, for legally blind golfers whose vision is in the 20-200 to 20-600 range, or about 10 percent of normal. The other categories are B-2 (5 percent vision) and B-1, for those who can perceive no light whatsoever.

He also came away with a huge amount of admiration for B-1 golfers.

"They have to have tremendous concentration to play," he said. "Before I watched them do this, I wouldn't have thought it possible."

Now Plath says getting involved in the USBGA is "the best thing I've ever done," not so much because of the competitive golf opportunities it provides, but "because it's opened up new things for me to do with kids at clinics."

Every USBGA event includes a golf clinic for youngsters with impaired vision.

That's an ideal fit for Plath, who was working with physically disabled elementary school students when his degenerating vision led the school district to let him go out of concern for the safety of his young charges.

Ironically, had his eyesight held out just three years longer, adoption of the Americans with Disabilities Act probably would have saved Plath's job by requiring the school district to hire an aide to assist him in the classroom.

Later this month, Plath will travel to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., to compete in the B-3 division at this year's U.S. Blind National Championships.

Normally, his coach is Regi Christensen, a longtime friend and golfing companion who works for the Sutherlin School District. This time, however, Plath will be accompanied by his parents, Ace and Viola Plath of Eugene.

"I want my dad to have a chance to coach me, because he's really the only golf coach I've ever had," Plath said. "He's a very spry, active 81-year-old who sees very well, so we'll make a good team."

Mike Stahlberg can be reached at [e-mail].