No Limits
Visually impaired golfer Leon Strydom has overcome plenty of obstacles to thrive in the game he loves.Golf balls are uncooperative at the best of times. Now, imagine having to chase one around with only 6% of your eyesight. This is Leon Strydom’s challenge each time he tees it up.
The 55-year-old suffers from Stargardt macular degeneration, a rare inherited eye disorder that causes progressive vision loss. The condition set in during childhood and gradually diluted his vision until around the age of 20, when it stabilized.
“The way I try to explain my vision,” says Leon, “is that whatever a normal person sees with their peripheral vision is what I see all the time. I can’t see details, even if I get close to the object.
“When I play, I can see my ball on the ground, but I can’t see if the ball is in the middle of the club. Obviously, I also can’t see the flight of the ball or how it reacts when I hit it.”
These limitations force him to play with a guide at all times: someone who lines him up, keeps track of his ball, and provides the feedback he needs to improve.
“With anything you practice, you want to see and understand what you’re doing wrong, and if you can’t see what you’re doing wrong, it’s worthless.
“Now I need someone to be with me all the time and tell me what they see, to understand what to work on. Small things like chipping—where did it pitch and how much did it roll? Is my ball fading, so perhaps the clubface is open at impact?
“To find someone available all the time when I want to play, who will give up their time, is not easy. Not even mentioning getting to where I want to play or practice, and not being able to drive myself.”
For years, Leon struggled to find consistent support, rotating through multiple caddies and guides. The solution finally arrived in 2017 when wife Lizell, an intensive care nurse with no golfing experience, committed to becoming his full-time guide.
“She decided to start working with me and learn everything she could to help me practice and play better.
“She lines me up, tells me what my ball does, where it bounces, and other things that might help me.
“She also makes the experience more enjoyable by pointing out courses with distinctive features that I would not even have noticed. For instance, some courses have wildlife or especially beautiful sunsets.
“She’s done amazing work to help us get to where we are now.”
With Lizell’s support, Leon has developed ingenious workarounds, particularly on the greens.
“I count the steps to the pin and try to feel the slopes with my feet,” he explains. “I also use a mallet putter’s head as a guide to determine the speed of the greens. I would go to the practice green and take one and two putter head lengths back with the stroke, and see how far the ball rolls.
“For example, if the ball rolls five steps with one head length, it means that the green is slow. If it rolls nine steps, I know it’s nice and fast.
“So, a lot of that is feel, but also calculated depending on the speed on the practice greens, and then obviously taking into account uphill and downhill slopes as well.
“Here my wife will also help me by telling me what she sees that I might not feel with my feet.”
Leon only took up golf in his mid-thirties—a time when many would rather stay on the couch than risk failing at something new.
Despite his late start, he has competed in every Blind World Championship since 2010 and recently won the Stableford Division of the Serengeti Disabled Open, his maiden win on the All Abilities Golf Tour.
“Golf has showed me that we as people can do so much more than we think,” he reflects.
“Sometimes, we limit ourselves in what we can achieve. As in life, putting in the hard work, trying to get better at something and then getting that one great shot—that brings you back, no matter what kind of day you’ve had.”