Cecil Alexander sets his sights on sinking his putts

JACK MILNER

This is a line spoken by a blind French girl to a young boy in Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr’s All The Light We Cannot See.

Those words could so easily apply to Cecil Alexander, who lost his sight in an accident 27 years ago. The adjustment obviously had to be huge, but the optimism displayed by Cecil is remarkable and contagious. He spent almost eight months at the (then) Johannesburg General Hospital to recover, but the adjustment to a “new life” took far longer.

“I don’t think about what I haven’t got. I just thank Hashem for everything I have got,” says Cecil. “We have to realise how much we take for granted. I was a watchmaker. And I repaired watches for blind people, brail watches and ones where you had to feel the hands. I never thought I would one day be wearing one.”

But Cecil loves golf and a radio story coupled with his enthusiastic former dentist changed his life. Cecil listened to a radio programme where they discussed the Wii Nintendo Sports and a chat to Zummy Isenberg, who had a passion for the television game.

Cecil was looking for ways to improve his golf and found the solution in Zummy and the Wii game. It looked an impossible task for a totally blind person to play the game, but Zummy, after some thought, came up with a solution.

Very much like a second helps a blind runner to keep him in his lane, Zummy devised a way in which he could talk Cecil through the game. But when you watch the pair, there is very little advice coming from Zummy. It’s more about lining Cecil up so he gets the best direction for the ball.

For example, the game puts up a wind speed and direction which Cecil obviously cannot read off the TV, so Zummy will pass on that information.

“I give him no more information than he would get from a caddy if he was on the golf course,” says Zummy. 

Otherwise it’s all up to Cecil and the day I sat with him he had just failed to get to his record of seven-under-par for the nine holes.

But Cecil also gets on to the “real” golf course where he does his thing with a proper club and proper ball. “For me walking on to the tee is like walking into Hashem’s office. The grass is like walking on a thick carpet, you have the birds singing, the warmth of the sun… It is a beautiful experience.”

Former pro Gavin Levinson is the man who works with Cecil. “The clubs have what I call a ‘nipple’ so I can line up properly. I have to get the thumb for my left hand on the top bump and the thumb from my right hand on the lower one. When both thumbs are touching those bumps it indicates to me the club face is straight.

“Gavin tees up the ball for me and holds the driver head behind the ball. I then bend my knees and put my hands on my knees and have to shuffle my feet to get into my position.

“From that point I straighten my knees, place my right foot out and turn my left toes to the left. I am now standing on my own.

“Gavin leaves my club head, looks around and gives the command ‘clear’. We do that because on one occasion some guy walking by was so interested in what we were doing that he came too close to me as I was taking my back swing, and I hit him.”

Cecil then also responds to “clear”, takes his back swing, connects with the ball “and I then stay in the follow-through position at which point Gavin tells me where my ball has gone.

“I can tell from the sound my club makes when it hits the ball, whether I have connected the ball beautifully on the sweet spot. That’s basically like a ‘ting’. On the other hand I can also tell form the sound how badly I may have hit the ball.

“Gavin then tells me the distance and direction the ball travelled and whether I lifted my head. Actually, I seldom miss the ball because I don’t have to lift my head to see where the ball has gone.”

Cecil is the only totally blind golfer in the country and a few years ago he played the Disabled Golf Championship in Somerset West. “Funnily enough, the blind world champion is an Israeli.”

Cecil also goes around to schools and talks to the kids about living with a disability. But Zummy has performed a superb job in helping Cecil to wake up and live his life and he would be keen to do the same thing for others.