PGA pro helps promote golf for the blind

Alessandro Calcaterra, a 33-year-old second year PGA assistant from TopGolf in Surrey, and his father Andrea, have been instrumental in forming the Italian Blind Golf Association (IBGA). Alessandro, as well as acting as guide to his father when on the golf course, is also coach to the Italian team which recently competed in the ISPS Handa World Blind Championship.

For Calcaterra senior, who played international golf for Italy before he lost his sight in the early 2000s, setting up the IBGA has been a significant milestone. “The Italian Blind Golfers’ Association was set up last November as a result of an agreement with Italy’s main golf federation and it was formed to help run golf for blind players in and outside Italy. We are a full member of the International Blind Golf Association, which was created by Dr Handa in 1998, and we are 14 full members and three associated members. We enjoy playing golf around the world and organise international tournaments and every two years we have the ISPS World Blind Championship, the last one we had this May in Australia.”