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Golf tournament is for blind and eligible disabled veterans
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Joseph Skebo, a Korean War veteran, holds the club he used when he made a hole-in-one in the National Veterans TEE Tournament in Iowa City in September. Skebo, 83, of Boardman, is considered legally blind.
BOARDMAN
Korean War Navy veteran Joseph F. Skebo has played golf most of his adult life, but he was 83 and legally blind before he got his first hole-in-one.
Skebo’s big moment came last month on the 70-yard, par-3 No. 8 hole at Elks Country Club Golf Course during a practice round at the National Veterans Training Exposure Experience Tournament in Iowa City, Iowa, for blind and disabled veterans.
“I couldn’t see the flag or the green. I can only see the ball to hit it,” the Boardman resident said.
“At first, I thought people were kidding me,” said Skebo, who used a pitching wedge for the shot.
“I was excited. I call it luck. Others called it a miracle. It would have been great if I could have seen it,” said Skebo, who had golfed at Firestone Country Club Golf Course in Akron and had a 12 handicap before he began losing his sight to macular degeneration about 20 years ago.
The National Veterans TEE Tournament is hosted by the Iowa City Veterans Affairs Medical Center with the support of volunteers.
The event provides legally blind and eligible disabled veterans an opportunity to develop new skills and strengthen their self-esteem through adaptive golf and bowling events. It gives participants an opportunity to participate in therapeutic adaptive sporting activities, which demonstrate that having a visual or physical disability need not be an obstacle to an active, rewarding life, according to the Iowa City VA.
The focus of the four-day event is the TEE Golf Tournament, but kayaking, horseback riding and other adaptive sports workshops are available.
Skebo, who had been out of golfing for about 15 years because of his failing eyesight, not only has participated in the TEE Tournament for nine years running, but he and some other legally blind buddies regularly golf at the Mill Creek MetroParks Short Holes Course.
“Sometimes, for the guys who are completely blind, we kind of nudge the ball along. Otherwise, we’d be there all day,” he said with a laugh.
“I can still mow the lawn on sunny days — my problem is dusk and night — and I have a garden,” Skebo said.
Skebo grew up on Mabel Street in Youngstown and graduated in 1949 from Wilson High School, where he played trombone in the orchestra and the marching and dance bands, and was chosen to play in the All-Boys Band at the Ohio State Fair.
He joined the Naval Reserve in 1949 and was called to active duty during the Korean War, serving aboard the USS Oriskany, an Essex-class aircraft carrier, from 1951 to 1953.
After he was discharged from the Navy, Skebo went to Youngstown College on the G.I. Bill and graduated with a degree in chemistry in 1957, a year after marrying Catherine Sarich of Struthers.
Degree in hand, he worked at the Goodyear Atomic Corp. near Portsmouth, Ohio, the Firestone Tire Co. in Akron and the Technical Rubber Co. in Johnstown, Ohio, where he was technical director and from which he retired in 1994. After their children were raised, Catherine worked for the Ohio Rehabilitation Service Commission. They moved back to the Youngstown area in 1995 to be near family.
Skebo is a member of the American Legion, Knights of Columbus, and St. Michael Catholic Church in Canfield, where he sings in the choir and Catherine is an eucharistic minister. He also participates in a VA-sponsored support group for blind veterans.
The couple has six children: three daughters, Diane L. Goldek of New Middletown, Monica Skebo of Westerville and Susan Duke of Marion, all teachers; three sons, Joseph J. in Georgia, Michael of Columbus, and Richard in Arizona, who was his father’s “sighter” during the VA event in Iowa. They also have 10 grandchildren.
A purpose of the VA TEE Tournament is to help keep veterans active physically and mentally, Skebo said.
“The camaraderie is wonderful. It lets you know you are not the only one facing the loss of your sight, and it is a chance to meet wonderful people.”
For every golfer, there are three volunteers from Iowa City area.
“They are so helpful and kind, and some of them do it year after year. The veterans are very grateful,” he said.