70 and blind, Ray Trevi
ño bowls and golfs in Golden Age Games
Raymond Trevi
ño isn’t done just yet, and he isn’t slowing down either.
A Korean War veteran and Hollister resident, Trevi
ño has been blind for seven years now after his retinas failed
due to his diabetes, in what was an all-of-a-sudden, overnight
occurrence.
He is blind in his left eye and has tunnel vision in his right,
which limits his peripheral vision and allows him to see just a few
feet straight ahead.
70 and blind, Ray Treviño bowls and golfs in Golden Age Games
Raymond Treviño isn’t done just yet, and he isn’t slowing down either.
A Korean War veteran and Hollister resident, Treviño has been blind for seven years now after his retinas failed due to his diabetes, in what was an all-of-a-sudden, overnight occurrence.
He is blind in his left eye and has tunnel vision in his right, which limits his peripheral vision and allows him to see just a few feet straight ahead.
But while that may limit some, and it even limited Treviño for short time, it simply seems to be yet another chapter in the book of the jeweler-turned-cook-turned-golfer, bowler and pool player.
With Thorn, his trusty yellow Labrador guide dog by his side, Treviño makes bold statements, like, “I’m gonna win a gold medal in golf.” But when speaking with Treviño, you get the sense that it becomes more of a question of when than if.
He stays busy, and as he says, he feels good, too.
“There is absolutely nothing I can’t do,” he said. “In the Games, I want to get a medal in golf and I’m gonna do that.”
Treviño, 70, recently returned from the 22nd National Veterans Golden Age Games in Indianapolis, where he earned a silver medal in visually impaired bowling after rolling a 203.
The Games, considered the largest sporting event in the world for senior veterans, brings together more than 700 competitors every year to compete in events such as discus, horseshoes, billiards and swimming, among others.
And although he competed in billiards this year as well, Treviño’s passion lies in golf, and the only colors he sees are gold, silver or bronze.
At Indianapolis this year, and even last year when the Games were in Houston, Treviño became somewhat of a pioneer in the sport. And a little bit of a rock star, too.
He was the first blind golfer to compete last year, in the 21 years of the Games, despite visually impaired golf being a popular sport on the East Coast since the 1950s, Treviño said.
“I get to Houston, and they say, ‘You’re the blind golfer from California. Welcome.’ Everyone wanted to know who I was,” said Treviño, who played with three other players in his foursome who weren’t blind. “My thing was to go play golf and then maybe get other blind men or women to do the same thing next year – this year.”
One of the rules, unfortunately, was that players were not allowed a caddy. Although Treviño had a volunteer tee his ball and monitor his shot, he felt, in order to perhaps stir awareness for the visually impaired, that he had to play.
“Even the other players were like, ‘How the heck are you supposed to know what you’re doing?'” Treviño said. “I have to play. If I don’t play and I go back to California and tell them I couldn’t, then they’re not gonna go. They’ll say what for?”
Treviño played, but said he didn’t do well. Although he may not have been satisfied with his score, in a way, he did just fine leading by example.
This year in Indianapolis, an event that took place from Aug. 20-24, Treviño was one of nine blind players in golf. Still, no caddies were allowed, but with the recent trend toward the visually impaired competing, Treviño feels a change is in the air.
“I’m sure next year, it’s gonna be even better,” said Treviño, who added that the local Elks Lodge has already started fundraising for his trip to the 2009 Games, which will be held in Birmingham, Ala. “What I’m thinking is they’re gonna supply caddies or they’re gonna say bring your own caddy.
“We played an 18-hole course, a good course … I did okay. If I would have had a caddy, I don’t think I could have won, but I really think I could have placed. I went with that kind of confidence.
“If my health keeps up, I’m gonna go every year to these Games here, and I’m gonna get a medal. I certainly will.”
Before Treviño had a do-everything attitude, though, namely right around the time he became blind, he said he felt limited.
He was a jeweler for 35 years, and later a cook at a catering business. He also worked at the William F. James Boys Ranch in Morgan Hill. He’s always been a busy man, he says, but after he went blind, Treviño said he wanted to quit.
“I put myself in a shell. I have two daughters and a son and they were like, ‘Dad, you’ve got to get out.’ And I was like, ‘I can’t,'” Treviño said.
“But the people at the Western Blind Rehabilitation Center in Palo Alto, they brought me back to life. I feel good.”
After re-learning the game of golf from an instructor at the Ridgemark Golf and Country Club, Treviño seems poised to medal at the Games.
With his drive, it’s simply a matter of when, not if.
“The only thing I can’t do, I can’t drive,” Treviño said, “But I probably could if I tried it.”
