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</style><title>Blind Georgia golfer overcomes disability to become champion | 13wmaz.com</title><div class="original-url">Sorry about that. I thought I included the article, but I didn’t. Here is the article included with this message.<br><a href="https://www.13wmaz.com/article/sports/if-you-dont-know-it-it-doesnt-exist-blind-thomaston-golfer-overcomes-disability-to-become-champion-2/93-50595679-270f-42c1-ba2c-2a3c34deca39">https://www.13wmaz.com/article/sports/if-you-dont-know-it-it-doesnt-exist-blind-thomaston-golfer-overcomes-disability-to-become-champion-2/93-50595679-270f-42c1-ba2c-2a3c34deca39</a><br><br></div><div id="article" role="article" style="-webkit-locale: "en"; text-rendering: optimizeLegibility; font-family: -apple-system-font; font-size: 1.2em; line-height: 1.5em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" class="system exported">
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<div class="page" style="text-align: start; word-wrap: break-word; max-width: 100%;"><h1 class="title" style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1.95552em; line-height: 1.2141em; margin-top: 0px; margin-bottom: 0.5em; text-align: start; display: block; max-width: 100%;">Blind Central Georgia golfer overcomes disability to become champion</h1><h2 class="subhead" style="font-weight: normal; text-align: start; display: block; color: rgba(27, 27, 27, 0.65); font-size: 1.46664em; margin-top: -0.35em; line-height: 1.27275em; max-width: 100%;">Most would consider the inability to see as a great disadvantage on the golf course. For Brian Oglesbee, it’s his greatest strength.</h2>
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<span style="max-width: 100%;">'It doesn't matter how you do it, it's that you do it.'</span>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">Under normal circumstances, the approach to most sports is very different for disabled athletes, but for one golfer in Thomaston, that just isn't the case.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">On the golf course, all things are equal -- at least that’s how Brian Oglesbee sees it.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">“Even on a bad round, there’s always one shot that will bring you back,” Oglesbee said.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">For Brian, that one shot came from his own mother, who pushed him to keep playing the game he loved even after losing his eyesight at the age of 16.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">“I tried to explain to her that golf was not exactly the easiest sport when I could see,” Oglesbee said.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">“My dad took me to the driving range, swung, and two things happened. One, I hit the golf ball, and two, I hit it straight, and that was something I couldn't do when I could see, so I figured she was maybe onto something.”</p> </div>
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<div data-module="gallery" data-initial-slide="0" data-id="80f50928-c402-47d4-a77e-43531ca4d2d6" data-categories="golf,local,news,sports" data-title="Blind Thomaston golfer overcomes disability to become champion" data-section="sports" data-subsection="golf" data-topic="" data-subtopic="" data-is-cct="false" data-tracking-tags="" data-initialized="true" data-state="ready" style="max-width: 100%;">
<h4 style="font-weight: bold; font-size: 1em; margin: 1em 0px; max-width: 100%;">Blind Thomaston golfer overcomes disability to become champion</h4>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">Local golf pro Jim Hickman has taught the game in Macon for more than 40 years. It didn’t take long for him to see that Brian was special.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">“I came over and we met,” Hickman said, “So we started hitting balls and I said, ‘I don't know what you need help with. You hit the ball straighter than almost anybody I've ever seen.’”</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">Three decades after losing his sight, Brian is a <em style="max-width: 100%;">four-time </em><a href="http://www.americanblindgolf.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">American Blind Golf</a> national champion.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">As if that wasn’t enough, he stays busy <a href="https://www.facebook.com/upsonleegolf/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank" style="color: rgb(65, 110, 210); max-width: 100%; text-decoration: underline;">coaching the golf teams at Upson-Lee High School in Thomaston.</a></p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">“The main difference in visually-impaired or blind golfers is that we have to have someone that's our coach, someone that helps us find the golf ball, lines us up,” Oglesbee said.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">For Brian, that someone is his lifelong best friend, Jason Hogan.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">“He's been a friend that's put up with a lot, because in the heat of the moment, it's definitely his fault, it wasn't my bad swing,” Oglesbee said with a smile. “After the fact, I realize the truth -- it was all me and it had nothing to do with him.”</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">But as for all of the good shots that Brian has made over the years, the secret lies in what he cannot see.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">For Brian, less is more.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">“You don't need to necessarily know that there's water 50 yards in front of you or there's a sand trap to the left of the green because that kind of stuff intimidates sighted people,” Oglesbee said. “If you don't know it, it doesn't exist.”</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;"></p><div class="iframe-wrapper" style="height: 232.875px; max-width: 100%;"><MailScannerIFrame30551 iframe src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/sIy5LuL7uOQ?rel=0" allowfullscreen="" scrolling="no" allow="encrypted-media; accelerometer; clipboard-write; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" sandbox="allow-scripts allow-same-origin" style="height: 100%; width: 414px; max-width: 100%;"></MailScannerIFrame30551></div><p></p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">When Brian is on the course coaching his team, there will be plenty of pointers given on how to better swing a club or hit a golf ball, but just having him out there at all day after day -- that might be the most important coaching tip there is.</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">“I have students that have perfect eyesight, great physical strength,” Hickman said, “And all they want to do is beat the ground with a golf club after they hit a bad shot. I'll tell them about Brian and I'll say, 'If you play the game the way Brian does, I won't say you won't get upset, but it doesn't last long.'”</p> </div>
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<p style="max-width: 100%;">It’s the power of perspective, the power of sport, and the power of Brian’s message to us all: “All things are truly possible if you believe. It doesn't matter how you do it, it's that you do it.”</p> </div>
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