NeSmith began to notice his eyesight deteriorating when he couldn’t detect blindside hits in practice. Photo by Alan Poizner/Nashville Tennessean Three-time national champion blind golfer Chad NeSmith teaches Malachi Johnson, who has lost the ability to see, to play the sport at the Brentwood Country Club. “I had nothing else in mind since I was 5 years old,” he said.īut … “That’s not what God wanted for me,” he said. If the final part of that plan didn’t work out, he’d just become a coach. He’d become a high school quarterback, play Division I college football and get drafted into the NFL. Growing up in Cullman, Alabama, as a staunch Crimson Tide fan, he had his life figured out. “When I’m on the golf course playing,” NeSmith said, “I actually forget I’m blind.” How NeSmith lost his sight But over the summer, he was taking lessons from NeSmith, a national-champion blind golfer, despite never having played the sport before becoming visually impaired. He was playing basketball as recently as December. Johnson, 13, is his latest student, who came to him after rapidly losing almost all of his vision in 2020. His journey has taken him from adolescent boy, unsure about his future, to a 51-year-old man who’s certain about his purpose: mentoring young people with impairments such as his. Golf has become a source of freedom for NeSmith that he never would have envisioned when he lost his eyesight as a teenager. “Once you figure out ‘I’m gonna swing and never miss,’ you’re going to start swinging with so much confidence.” “There it is! Outstanding Malachi! Dead straight,” NeSmith says with a wide smile. NeSmith, known by most as “Doc,” stands with his arms crossed at Brentwood Country Club, his blue-chromed glasses fixated on his student, waiting for another swing. “Lost my balance?” an uncertain Johnson asks back. “Now what do you think you did wrong there?” NeSmith asks. Though neither of them could see the patch of grass travel through the air from Johnson’s iron blade, they could hear it. Chad NeSmith and Malachi Johnson are entranced by the same game.
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