Australian golfer vows to return after accident left him blind in one eye – NBC10 Philadelphia

Australian golfer Geoffrey Guan has vowed to return to the sport and “overcome any obstacle” after a golf ball hit him in the face and left him completely blind in his left eye.

The incident occurred in September during a professional tournament at Catalina Golf Club in the Australian state of New South Wales, just a week after Guan made his PGA Tour debut.

The 20-year-old rising star, a two-time Australian junior champion, said on Instagram on Thursday that he was hit by the ball as he turned to his golf cart to put his club away after hitting it.

“An instant ringing and pain hit my head and I fell to the ground,” Guan wrote. “The voices sounded quite muffled and the next thing I knew I was being taken to hospital in an ambulance.”

He was then airlifted to Canberra, the capital of Australia, for surgery.

“I was in unbearable pain, and worry about my future was swirling in my head,” he wrote.

After being transferred to Sydney for a second operation, Guan spent two weeks in intensive care to ensure his eyeball was stable.

Any activity requiring energy, including walking and eating, caused him “excruciating pain,” he wrote.

Guan said doctors told him he had multiple fractures to his eye socket.

“At night in the hospital I was almost drowning in thoughts about the injury and my future in the sport,” he wrote, adding that “the whole situation left me very depressed and somewhat angry.”

The PGA of Australia said on Thursday Guan’s vision loss was permanent.

Guan thanked those around him for their support, saying, “I will be back.”

“These four weeks have been the hardest of my life, but I have become mentally stronger and will be ready to overcome any obstacles in the future,” he wrote.

As of Friday, a crowdfunding campaign launched by the Australian Sports Foundation had raised more than A$13,000 ($8,500) of its $500,000 goal.

Guan’s first appearance on the PGA Tour came at the Procore Championship in California in September. Although he didn’t make the cut, “just being in this competition was a huge accomplishment,” Golf Magazine wrote.

He recently signed with Sportfive, a sports marketing company based in Germany that also represents Spanish professional golfer Jon Rahm.

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