New Orleans Golfer Heads Field in Competition for the Sightless
Pat Browne of New Orleans, champion of the United States Blind Golfers Assn., seeks his fourth straight victory today in the Corcoran Cup competition for sightless players.
A field of 10, representing seven states and Canada, is scheduled for 18 holes of stroke play at the Mount Kisco Country Club. Any player who fails to shoot 62 or better for the first nine will be eliminated.
Browne, president of the Hibernia Homestead Bank in New Orleans, has won all but two of the previous cup events named for the late Fred J. Corcoran, who was a vital force in building the PGA tour in its early decades.
On Monday, the 10 blind golfers will serve as the “pros” in the pro-am style Ken Venturi Guiding Eyes tournament at Mount Kisco and the Whippoorwill Club of Armonk, N.Y. Each will play several holes with different groups at the two courses.
Minimum entry fee for the amateurs is $1,500. The pro-am in eight years has raised $1,200,000 for Guiding Eyes for the Blind, Inc., of Yorktown Heights, N.Y., which breeds guide dogs and trains both the dogs and the blind persons who will use them.
In blind golf competition, players rely on coaches to tee up balls, provide information on distances and terrain and line up putts.
Browne, a one-handicap golfer until he lost his sight in an auto accident in 1966, since then has posted an 85 at the famed Old Course in St. Andrews, Scotland, and has a low of 76 at his home course, the New Orleans Country Club. He currently is coached by Charles Monsted IV.
Others in the Corcoran Cup field, listed with their coaches:
Walter Dietz and Rod Young, Berea, Ohio; Ed Erwin and Gene Baker, Morganton, N.C.; Gaston Gagne and wife Doreen, Ballston Spa, N.Y.; August Jankowski and William Love, Dunkirk, N.Y.; Clarence McFarland and wife Marilynn, Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio; Charles Mayo and daughter Peggy, Santa Clara, Calif.; Joe Nessinger and Donald Torgeson, Grayslake, Ill.; Claude Pattemore and Dave Woodall, Hamilton, Ontario, and John Wood and wife Alma, Salem, Ore.