Irish Blind Golf's Ed Maguire (second from right) along with his guide Michelle Hughes and tour players Richard Bland, Ricardo Santos and Matthew Baldwin at the Beat the Pro Challenge on the seventh hole at Galgorm Castle, Ballymena (Photo: PressEye).

Maguire takes part in historic golfing event

Former Mayo, Meath and Carlow footballer Eddie Maguire was involved in the creation of a piece of golfing history when he played this week at the Galgorm Castle Golf Club, Ballymena, Co Antrim which hosted the ISPS Handa World Invitational golf tournament. The tournament proper started last Thursday and ended today. 

As part of the tournament - which involved male and female golfers - members of the Irish Blind Golf fraternity played in the Pro Am which took place on the Wednesday. They also participated in an exhibition event on the Thursday which involved three members of the Irish Blind Golf fraternity taking on the professionals over one hole on the course, the signature seventh, a par three that extends for 170 yards. Among the three who took part was Maguire. 

"That was the first time in history blind golfers have played with professionals who are part of the European tour and it was wonderful to be part of it," explained Maguire.

The ISPS Handa World Invitational is unique in that the winners of the male and female categories each receive 210,000 pounds sterling with other monetary awards for those who finish close behind. 

In the exhibition event on Thursday Maguire took on the one-hole challenge with golfers Richard Bland, Ricardo Santos and Matthew Baldwin. While none of the Irish Blind Golfers managed to win they did achieve some notable feats with Maguire's tee shot proving to be longer and more accurate than two of the professionals that took part, the ball landing sweetly on the green. 

“I had a wonderful guide in Michelle Hughes,” said Maguire. “Michelle knows I fade the ball, so she said, ‘I’m setting you up 15 yards left of the water to come back to the green’. She said ‘Ed, you can go now’ so I swung and the ball made it onto the green.”

Maguire has been actively involved with Irish Blind Golf for years, a voluntary organisation for blind and visually impaired people who wish to learn or continue to play golf.

Maguire’s life changed after an accident that left him blind for over a year but he regained a percentage of his sight joining the Irish Blind Golf group in a move proved to be a very positive for him. He remains a partically sighted golfer.    

“It took me three years but eventually I joined Irish Blind Golf and I can tell you it was simply transformational. I changed back into the happy person I hadn’t been for a very long time," he said. 

“This is what golf does for a person. Even when you’re not playing well, when you have a bad hole, there is always the next hole.” Maguire also welcomed the opportunity to tee it up with the professionals at this week’s ISPS Handa World Invitational and get so close to the live tournament action.

“It has been such a wonderful experience. The opportunity we got today through ISPS Handa to play a small part in the actual tournament gave a whole new dimension to the word fun. It was a simply wonderful experience.”