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http://news.cincinnati.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060527/SPT06/605270387/1073
Deaf golfer determined to make his way as a pro
There is a book in Kevin Hall's bedroom. Well, parts of a book.
It is in pieces, 160 pages, stacked up, highlighted, scribbled upon.
Hall sometimes takes parts of the book on the road with him, when he's traveling to golf tournaments.
"Fearless Golf," by Dr. Gio Valiente.
"The ego-oriented golfer," Hall says. "That's me. 'The ego-oriented golfer plays golf to please people, to try and show them that I have game.' The book says that I need to play mastery golf, which is to focus on my own game, one shot at a time."
Ah, the mental side.
The side almost everybody struggles with. And not just golfers.
It's where Kevin Hall is these days in his golfing development.
Between the ears.
It is quiet in there.
Just Kevin and his thoughts.
He doesn't hear a thing.
He is profoundly deaf. A bout of H. flu meningitis took his hearing when he was 2.
Put your fingers into your ears and count to 30. Remove your fingers and listen to the sounds. Birds chirping, tree leaves rustling, 18-wheelers whirring by in the distance.
For Kevin? Nothing.
It is his world.
And, oh, what a world it is.
HIS STORY IS ONE OF A KIND
The opportunities are rolling in like birdies when the greens are soft. And 23-year-old Kevin Hall is on a birdie binge.
Hall is a former student at St. Rita School for the Deaf, who played his high school golf at Winton Woods and was junior and senior co-captain of the Ohio State golf team. Hall is the record-setting medalist at the 2004 Big Ten Championship. He finished 11 shots ahead of the runner-up.
He knows he is blessed.
Today, he plays in some PGA Tour events through sponsor's exemptions. That's how he made the field for the Memorial Tournament in Columbus. The first round is Thursday. It will be Hall's fifth PGA Tour event. He's yet to make a cut but has come close.
He has not yet earned his PGA Tour card. Only one year out of OSU, he tries to make it into Nationwide Tour fields via Monday morning qualifiers. The Nationwide is essentially golf's minor leagues.
PGA Tour sponsors know who Hall is. Besides being African-American, which is rare enough on tour, Hall is also the first deaf player to compete in a PGA Tour event.
In the past year, he has played in his first PGA event (Milwaukee), his first invitational (AT&T at Pebble Beach) and a third event in New Orleans, where he saw the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina.
It has been an eye-opening year.
"Homes, stores, restaurants, all destroyed," Kevin said in an e-mail interview. "Driving past expensive homes, slums, everything - not one house in good shape. No cars, no people, nothing.
"Then I get to the course for the Pro-Am in a fancy neighborhood, but there were people staying in motor homes out in front of their houses, trying to fix them. I stayed on Bourbon Street in downtown New Orleans, and people were sleeping outside on the sidewalk. Garbage was all over the place. Some places were open for business, but not in great shape."
At the golf course at 6:30 in the morning, he saw another sight that astounded him.
Golfers.
He'd gone to the course at what he thought to be an almost ungodly hour, and already at the course were 15 golfers, including two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen. Some were eating breakfast, others already hitting range balls.
"I thought most of them would be sleeping till about 7 or 8 and get to the course at 9 or something," Kevin said. "It taught me a big lesson."
"His talent is endless," said Doug Martin, who played nine years on the pro tour and has worked some with Kevin. "You don't see many 23-year-olds have success on the tour. Most are in their 30s. Patience is important. It may not come as soon as he wants. But as long as he continues to develop as a person and as a player - he has a solid all-around game; he just needs to get a little bit better in every aspect - I don't see how he won't make it. I've played with all the great ones, and Kevin has the desire, the passion and the look."
MEMORIAL ALMOST LIKE HOME
Next week, Hall will tee it up at the Memorial in Dublin. The Course that Jack Built. In Hall's backyard, where he played for the Buckeyes. As a senior, he shot a conference-record 199 for three rounds in the Big Ten Championships in Michigan.
Hall has been trying to get back to that "place" ever since.
He may not get there next week, but it won't matter. Not yet, anyway.
"I've been a spectator in the Memorial for many years with my parents and friends," Hall said. "I imagined myself hitting shots into certain holes, and I'd think, 'What if that was me?' I told my mom I'd be out there someday. I'm not surprised it has happened, but I'm surprised it happened this early. It's going to be really exciting playing in front of family, friends and people in Columbus."
What about his mom and dad?
"I can't wait to see them in the gallery," Kevin said. "They will be two of the proudest people in the world."
And what do Jackie and Percy think it will be like (besides being basket cases, that is)?
"We have to be careful about that," Jackie said. "Once or twice I grimaced on a shot or dropped my head, and he saw it. His senses are heightened to that sort of thing. He said, 'Mom, don't do that. I hate it when you do that. Don't react like that to a bad shot.' He doesn't care if I'm mush on the inside - and I will be - but he wants me to be stoic on the outside, and I will be."
MOM: 'YOU PLAYED LIKE A PUNK'
"Are you going to talk with him afterward?" somebody asked Jackie.
The scene occurred Monday after the 18-hole U.S. Open Qualifier at Maketewah Country Club. Hall shot a 1-over-par 73, missing the cut by two strokes that would have put him in a playoff.
"I'm going to tell him he played like a punk," Jackie answered.
And that is exactly what she told him - good-naturedly, of course. Hall was glum-faced. It was an act. Hall circled around his mom from the back, put an arm around her neck and broke into a big smile.
Jackie feigned pushing him away, but that was an act, too. Hall hung on tighter and whispered something in her ear. They both laughed.
"Can't hear a thing," Jackie said of her son. "But sometimes I wonder."
Like the time many years ago when she and Percy, a retired meat-cutter, were laughing uproariously late one night, and there came a knock on the bedroom wall.
"Quiet!" said Kevin. "Don't you know I'm trying to get some sleep over here?"
Jackie and Percy were laughing so hard that the walls were vibrating, which is the sensation Hall had picked up.
And there are times like last Saturday, when Hall was hitting practice balls from one of the tees at Glenview. Percy announced - from a spot where his couldn't have read his lips or his body language - "I'm going to see how far this hole is."
A split-second later, Hall said, "I'm going to see how far this hole is."
Jackie was startled.
"Eerie," she said.
Mental telepathy, probably. Maybe it stems partly from father and son being together so much. They know how good they have it, traveling the country together to tournaments.
Jackie is usually the one left behind, working as a business analyst for a truck leasing company and finishing her college business degree. She doesn't complain, feels blessed that she can be a part of encouraging Hall to pursue his dream, and tells him only half-jokingly: "Hurry it up, kiddo. I want my husband back!"
Here's an exchange at a Pebble Beach press conference this year. Hall was at the dais, Percy at his side:
Reporter: "Where is your mom this week?"
Hall: "At home making money for us - working. (wide grin.) She has class, too."
Percy put his hand over his face to hide a laugh.
HE SOON WILL BE ON HIS OWN
Soon, Hall will move from his parents' home in Forest Park to a condo. Eventually, like so many other pro golfers, he will move to Florida.
Right now, if he's in bed and his alarm clock buzzes or the fire alarm blasts, his bed vibrates. If his phone rings, a light flashes. When he wants to text or e-mail - the way he communicated for most of this story - he does it through his Blackberry.
There is nothing to allow Kevin to hear the sweet sound that his club head makes ripping through the ball.
"I've had pros tell me they can stand behind somebody and close their eyes and just listen to that sound and know if it's a well-struck shot," pro Martin said. "Having the ability to hear that sound can really help your game. Kevin would appreciate that sound. But just like with everything else, he's overcome it. He's an inspiration to me."
Someday soon, Kevin hopes to travel on the Nationwide Tour. What are the challenges he'll face?
"Communication," he said. "Other challenges will be living on my own, making sure I have technology to protect my life, fire alarms that vibrate under my bed, strobe lights that go off when one of the alarms go off, doorbell lights to let me know someone's at the door. I have to have all of that. I also have to have interpreters with me for the most part. Being on my own and meeting people without my parents by my side. It'll be tough, but I've always found a way ... to get around just fine."
He's excited about the prospect of getting out on his own, but, at the same time, he's "terrified."
"I've always had my parents with me growing up, teaching me lessons, telling me what to do and what not to do," he said. "That was my security blanket. But now, I'm getting to the age where I'm going to have to break away and be on my own. What will life be like? What challenges will I face? How am I going to do this on my own? Those are questions I ask myself every day.
"I remind myself every time that there are other people doing the same thing. It's normal. That's life. I just gotta go do it."
Deaf golfer determined to make his way as a pro
There is a book in Kevin Hall's bedroom. Well, parts of a book.
It is in pieces, 160 pages, stacked up, highlighted, scribbled upon.
Hall sometimes takes parts of the book on the road with him, when he's traveling to golf tournaments.
"Fearless Golf," by Dr. Gio Valiente.
"The ego-oriented golfer," Hall says. "That's me. 'The ego-oriented golfer plays golf to please people, to try and show them that I have game.' The book says that I need to play mastery golf, which is to focus on my own game, one shot at a time."
Ah, the mental side.
The side almost everybody struggles with. And not just golfers.
It's where Kevin Hall is these days in his golfing development.
Between the ears.
It is quiet in there.
Just Kevin and his thoughts.
He doesn't hear a thing.
He is profoundly deaf. A bout of H. flu meningitis took his hearing when he was 2.
Put your fingers into your ears and count to 30. Remove your fingers and listen to the sounds. Birds chirping, tree leaves rustling, 18-wheelers whirring by in the distance.
For Kevin? Nothing.
It is his world.
And, oh, what a world it is.
HIS STORY IS ONE OF A KIND
The opportunities are rolling in like birdies when the greens are soft. And 23-year-old Kevin Hall is on a birdie binge.
Hall is a former student at St. Rita School for the Deaf, who played his high school golf at Winton Woods and was junior and senior co-captain of the Ohio State golf team. Hall is the record-setting medalist at the 2004 Big Ten Championship. He finished 11 shots ahead of the runner-up.
He knows he is blessed.
Today, he plays in some PGA Tour events through sponsor's exemptions. That's how he made the field for the Memorial Tournament in Columbus. The first round is Thursday. It will be Hall's fifth PGA Tour event. He's yet to make a cut but has come close.
He has not yet earned his PGA Tour card. Only one year out of OSU, he tries to make it into Nationwide Tour fields via Monday morning qualifiers. The Nationwide is essentially golf's minor leagues.
PGA Tour sponsors know who Hall is. Besides being African-American, which is rare enough on tour, Hall is also the first deaf player to compete in a PGA Tour event.
In the past year, he has played in his first PGA event (Milwaukee), his first invitational (AT&T at Pebble Beach) and a third event in New Orleans, where he saw the devastation left behind by Hurricane Katrina.
It has been an eye-opening year.
"Homes, stores, restaurants, all destroyed," Kevin said in an e-mail interview. "Driving past expensive homes, slums, everything - not one house in good shape. No cars, no people, nothing.
"Then I get to the course for the Pro-Am in a fancy neighborhood, but there were people staying in motor homes out in front of their houses, trying to fix them. I stayed on Bourbon Street in downtown New Orleans, and people were sleeping outside on the sidewalk. Garbage was all over the place. Some places were open for business, but not in great shape."
At the golf course at 6:30 in the morning, he saw another sight that astounded him.
Golfers.
He'd gone to the course at what he thought to be an almost ungodly hour, and already at the course were 15 golfers, including two-time U.S. Open champion Retief Goosen. Some were eating breakfast, others already hitting range balls.
"I thought most of them would be sleeping till about 7 or 8 and get to the course at 9 or something," Kevin said. "It taught me a big lesson."
"His talent is endless," said Doug Martin, who played nine years on the pro tour and has worked some with Kevin. "You don't see many 23-year-olds have success on the tour. Most are in their 30s. Patience is important. It may not come as soon as he wants. But as long as he continues to develop as a person and as a player - he has a solid all-around game; he just needs to get a little bit better in every aspect - I don't see how he won't make it. I've played with all the great ones, and Kevin has the desire, the passion and the look."
MEMORIAL ALMOST LIKE HOME
Next week, Hall will tee it up at the Memorial in Dublin. The Course that Jack Built. In Hall's backyard, where he played for the Buckeyes. As a senior, he shot a conference-record 199 for three rounds in the Big Ten Championships in Michigan.
Hall has been trying to get back to that "place" ever since.
He may not get there next week, but it won't matter. Not yet, anyway.
"I've been a spectator in the Memorial for many years with my parents and friends," Hall said. "I imagined myself hitting shots into certain holes, and I'd think, 'What if that was me?' I told my mom I'd be out there someday. I'm not surprised it has happened, but I'm surprised it happened this early. It's going to be really exciting playing in front of family, friends and people in Columbus."
What about his mom and dad?
"I can't wait to see them in the gallery," Kevin said. "They will be two of the proudest people in the world."
And what do Jackie and Percy think it will be like (besides being basket cases, that is)?
"We have to be careful about that," Jackie said. "Once or twice I grimaced on a shot or dropped my head, and he saw it. His senses are heightened to that sort of thing. He said, 'Mom, don't do that. I hate it when you do that. Don't react like that to a bad shot.' He doesn't care if I'm mush on the inside - and I will be - but he wants me to be stoic on the outside, and I will be."
MOM: 'YOU PLAYED LIKE A PUNK'
"Are you going to talk with him afterward?" somebody asked Jackie.
The scene occurred Monday after the 18-hole U.S. Open Qualifier at Maketewah Country Club. Hall shot a 1-over-par 73, missing the cut by two strokes that would have put him in a playoff.
"I'm going to tell him he played like a punk," Jackie answered.
And that is exactly what she told him - good-naturedly, of course. Hall was glum-faced. It was an act. Hall circled around his mom from the back, put an arm around her neck and broke into a big smile.
Jackie feigned pushing him away, but that was an act, too. Hall hung on tighter and whispered something in her ear. They both laughed.
"Can't hear a thing," Jackie said of her son. "But sometimes I wonder."
Like the time many years ago when she and Percy, a retired meat-cutter, were laughing uproariously late one night, and there came a knock on the bedroom wall.
"Quiet!" said Kevin. "Don't you know I'm trying to get some sleep over here?"
Jackie and Percy were laughing so hard that the walls were vibrating, which is the sensation Hall had picked up.
And there are times like last Saturday, when Hall was hitting practice balls from one of the tees at Glenview. Percy announced - from a spot where his couldn't have read his lips or his body language - "I'm going to see how far this hole is."
A split-second later, Hall said, "I'm going to see how far this hole is."
Jackie was startled.
"Eerie," she said.
Mental telepathy, probably. Maybe it stems partly from father and son being together so much. They know how good they have it, traveling the country together to tournaments.
Jackie is usually the one left behind, working as a business analyst for a truck leasing company and finishing her college business degree. She doesn't complain, feels blessed that she can be a part of encouraging Hall to pursue his dream, and tells him only half-jokingly: "Hurry it up, kiddo. I want my husband back!"
Here's an exchange at a Pebble Beach press conference this year. Hall was at the dais, Percy at his side:
Reporter: "Where is your mom this week?"
Hall: "At home making money for us - working. (wide grin.) She has class, too."
Percy put his hand over his face to hide a laugh.
HE SOON WILL BE ON HIS OWN
Soon, Hall will move from his parents' home in Forest Park to a condo. Eventually, like so many other pro golfers, he will move to Florida.
Right now, if he's in bed and his alarm clock buzzes or the fire alarm blasts, his bed vibrates. If his phone rings, a light flashes. When he wants to text or e-mail - the way he communicated for most of this story - he does it through his Blackberry.
There is nothing to allow Kevin to hear the sweet sound that his club head makes ripping through the ball.
"I've had pros tell me they can stand behind somebody and close their eyes and just listen to that sound and know if it's a well-struck shot," pro Martin said. "Having the ability to hear that sound can really help your game. Kevin would appreciate that sound. But just like with everything else, he's overcome it. He's an inspiration to me."
Someday soon, Kevin hopes to travel on the Nationwide Tour. What are the challenges he'll face?
"Communication," he said. "Other challenges will be living on my own, making sure I have technology to protect my life, fire alarms that vibrate under my bed, strobe lights that go off when one of the alarms go off, doorbell lights to let me know someone's at the door. I have to have all of that. I also have to have interpreters with me for the most part. Being on my own and meeting people without my parents by my side. It'll be tough, but I've always found a way ... to get around just fine."
He's excited about the prospect of getting out on his own, but, at the same time, he's "terrified."
"I've always had my parents with me growing up, teaching me lessons, telling me what to do and what not to do," he said. "That was my security blanket. But now, I'm getting to the age where I'm going to have to break away and be on my own. What will life be like? What challenges will I face? How am I going to do this on my own? Those are questions I ask myself every day.
"I remind myself every time that there are other people doing the same thing. It's normal. That's life. I just gotta go do it."