Glen Oak hosts veterans participating in Hines VA Blind Center program
This article appeared in the August 2024 edition of Chicago District Golfer.
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Retired Marine Pat "Cookie" Ruppert is one of the visually impaired veterans to take part int he CDGA Blind Veterans Golf Outing at Glen Oak Country Club.

One day about three years ago, Elvin Ellison’s life changed forever. “I went to sleep one night, woke up and I was blind,” said Ellison, a 72-year-old retired Navy veteran who was at Glen Oak Country Club in Glen Ellyn on a beautiful day in October to play golf for the first time. “Glaucoma. It’s been three years and I’m just realizing I’m blind. These are the Golden Years to enjoy. I’m trying to do that.”

A native and current resident of Dallas, Ellison was one of eight U.S. military veterans who played several holes at Glen Oak as part of the CDGA’s Blind Veterans Golf Outings administered in conjunction with the Hines VA Hospital’s Central Blind Rehabilitation Center in Maywood. Throughout the summer, the CDGA serves as a liaison between Hines and local country clubs that provide opportunities for approximately 120 blind vets to enjoy their courses over the summer.

“I love it,” said Ellison, dressed in matching bright red pants and jacket. “Weather. Happiness. Just being out here. This is a nice place. I can’t see it, but I can feel it.”

Minnesota native Pat “Cookie” Ruppert was a 9-handicap before he lost most of his sight, the result of his diabetes. The retired Marine with a silver Santa Claus beard still hasn’t lost his sense of humor, though.

“I’m blind and I still pick my head up when I hit the ball!” he ho-ho’d. “I did pull my head up even when I was a fair golfer. You always know, keep your head down and just follow through.”

Moments later, he swung and missed a ball teed up in the fairway by his “coach” Chris “Toad” Evans, a 40-year member of Glen Oak. But he connected on his third, which wound up inches into the greenside rough some 25 feet from the hole.

Navy veteran Elvin Ellison was one of many veterans who took part in the 13 outings conducted by the CDGA in 2024 in conjunction with the Hines VA Hospital's Central Blind Rehabilitation Center. 

“Start it off to the right and land it up here,” Evans advised, as the green sloped right to left. After Evans adjusted the face of his 56-degree wedge, Cookie’s short backswing created perfect contact and the ball rolled to within five feet of the cup. Two putts later and it was on to the next hole.

“I think this is the best thing the club does,” said Evans, who has volunteered for the last five years. “My dad was in the Air Force. I respect military service very much. When they come here, our job is to keep ‘em laughing, make sure they have a good time.”

Chicago native Earl Young, 63, who spent 10 years in the Army deployed across the world and later served in the Reserves, also lost his sight because of diabetes. Yet he flushed his second shot, which rose through the air and landed softly on the green.

“I learned to play golf when I could see,” he said. “My son took me out to Jackson Park [Golf Course] and it was so much fun. That was 20-some years ago. This is only my second time in nine years. Once my eyesight went, I didn’t want to come out. I didn’t want to hurt anybody. But coming to the Blind Center, they told me that they go play golf, so I said, ‘Okay, I’ll go out with them.’ Luckily, I’ve had some good coaches. They line me up in the right direction, I get a practice swing in, remember what it feels like, and I hit the ball and go.”

As Young referenced, each veteran was accompanied by a volunteer “coach” from Glen Oak who would tee up their ball on both the tee box and everywhere else on the course except on and around the greens and point them in the right direction. The same model is in place at each of the clubs that host the Blind Veterans Golf Outings.

“I tell the volunteers that they’ll get more out of it than the veterans do,” said Glen Oak member Bonnie King, a former high school teacher and longtime co-chair of the event with her friend and fellow member Jeri Bus. “My father was in the Normandy Invasion. My stepfather was shot out of the sky over France…The veterans have given so much, they’re selfless.”

Chicagoan Earl Young strikes an approach shot with the aid of a Glen Oak Country Club member serving as a volunteer for the event.

The golf outing is part of a program for blind veterans from across the country to come to Hines to learn how to live more independently while vision-impaired, according to Melissa Winter, recreation therapist with Hines, which opened the nation’s first Blind Center in 1947. Classes include how to use a long white cane, how to cross a street, how to navigate public transportation, how to utilize a human guide, how to get around the rooms where they live and how to eat dinner in public. Those with limited visual skills learn how to use visual aids to help them read.

“No one has ever given them a playbook on how to live life as a blind person,” Winter (pictured left) said. “Sometimes family and friends will tell them you can’t do certain things because they have a vision impairment. So out of love and trying to keep them safe they tell them you can’t do these things when in reality you still can. This is one thing we try to demonstrate to the veterans – you could do this at home.”

The visit to the golf course includes playing several holes with their guides and having lunch at the club.

“Some of the veterans have told me that they have stopped going out to eat because they don’t want to make a mess,” Winter said. “But here, they know they’re in a supportive environment and that all of us are going to make sure they’re okay.”

The original Blind Veterans program was operated by the Chicago Area Unit of the UVS Golf Swing Club, which turned it over to the CDGA in 2018. The CDGA also has veterans-assistance programs that extend back to World War I, hence the program fitting in well with its mission.

“I’ve enjoyed this,” said Young, a resident of Chicago’s Englewood neighborhood. “I want to thank everybody for having us out here, that’s for gosh darn sure. What I did, that was just me trying to serve my country and do the right thing. I didn’t have to join. I wanted to join. I did right. They did me right and I’m okay.”

Barry Cronin is the editor of Chicago District Golfer.

Adaptive Sunshine Programs
CDGA Adaptive Sunshine Programs modify the game of golf to allow those with physical disabilities to experience its benefits. Examples of these programs include:

Blind Veterans Golf Outings:
As demonstrated in the adjacent feature story, the CDGA collaborated with the Hines VA Hospital Blind Rehabilitation Center to present 13 golf outings for veterans with visual impairments. Thank you to Glen Oak Country Club, Idlewild Country Club, La Grange Country Club, Odyssey Golf Foundation Golf Course, Park Ridge Country Club, Ridge Country Club, Ridgemoor Country Club, Riverside Country Club, Rolling Green Country Club and Sunset Ridge Country Club for hosting outings in 2024.

Inaugural Chicago Adaptive Open:
The CDGA conducted the inaugural Chicago Adaptive Open (pictured, left) at Cog Hill Golf & Country Club’s Course No. 3, June 29-30, which featured the world’s best golfers with physical and intellectual disabilities. The 2025 iteration will be held June 21-22 at Fox Bend Golf Course in Oswego.

USAGA Clinics:
The CDGA partnered with the U.S. Adaptive Golf Alliance (USAGA) to present 3,500 free adaptive golf lessons at local middle and high schools.