Sunday, October 17, 1999
Deaf golfer comes into his own
BY JOHN ERARDI
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Kevin Hall of Winton Woods is being recruited by colleges throughout the country.
(Gary Landers photo)
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Three years ago, 13-year-old Kevin Hall — all 4-feet-11 and 120 pounds of him — became the first student in the 80-year history of St. Rita School for the Deaf to be mainstreamed into public-school sports.
On that day in 1996, Hall pointed at the 42-stroke average of then-Winton Woods sophomore golfer Jay Tilton and good-naturedly snapped a twig in front of Tilton to communicate his intention to break Tilton's freshman record.
Hall did break it ... and then broke the junior record ... and this year broke the senior record with a 36.6 stroke average, tops in the city.
Now, 5-foot-5 and 150 pounds, Hall is being recruited by colleges including Ohio State in Columbus, where Hall will play in the state high school championship next weekend.
“It's going to be very exciting,” Hall said. “It will mean a big gallery at Ohio State's Scarlet Course, playing it for the first time. That's a great opportunity.”
Hall was co-medalist in the district tournament last Thursday at Weatherwax in Middletown. Although he struck the ball well from tee to green the first 14 holes, he couldn't buy a putt, not even a short one, and was 6-over. He was staring at the possibility of not earning one of the three individual spots alloted for the state tournament.
It was an excruciatingly slow day — more than six hours for 18 holes — as the contestants struggled trying to read the fast greens and make their putts. For Hall, it was even worse, because as a deaf person, he couldn't communicate by talking with his fellow players. He has been deaf since age 21/2, when meningitis robbed him of his hearing. Hall knows what he is saying, but his enunciation isn't precise. It continues to improve with speech therapy.
He is the heart of the Winton Woods golf team, revered by the other players, with whom he communicates in a variety of ways: hand and body language, signing, facial expressions and typical teenage horseplay. He types up, prints out and hands out inspirational messages, many of them from his idol, Tiger Woods.
“Communication is not a problem for him or us,” teammate Chris Gall said. “There are other ways to communicate than just talking. In many ways, I think it's made us closer to Kevin, and him to us.”
“I love these guys,” said Kevin.
Despite the slow pace of play at Weatherwax, Hall was still able to turn it on. On the 16th hole, he drained a 10-footer for birdie. On the par-3 17th, after a 10-minute wait on the tee, he nailed a three-iron to within 20 feet and sunk the birdie putt. Not only did he qualify for the state tournament with a 77, he won a sudden-death playoff with Ryan Chambers of Wilmington to determine the district champion. Hall birdied the last two holes of the three-hole playoff; on the day, he had birdied four his final six holes.
“I was thinking about Tiger Woods, the way he came back (to win his third U.S. Junior Amateur),” said Hall, via sign language to his mother, Jackie. “The same thing happened for me. It was my last year (to make state). I said after bogeying the 14th hole, "There are four holes to go. It's my last year. Let's go out with a bang.'”
Last Sunday, Hall, a straight-A student, was named the first recipient of the National Minority Golf Foundation's “Junior Golfer of the Year” award in Phoenix, Ariz.
“Kevin is a wonderful ball striker,” said his personal teacher, Zach Fink. “He very seldom mishits a golf shot. That is incredibly special about this young man. He doesn't hit every iron next to the pin — some go a little left or right — but they're solid. That's unusual, even in the professional ranks.”
Accepting attention
Hall is a terrific long-iron player and also deft around the green. Four years ago, as in incoming freshman, he was hitting the ball 200 yards off the tee; now he is 70 yards past that.
The spotlight has been on him since his freshman year of high school. Until this past summer, he's always seemed able to handle it. But when an article about him appeared in the York (Pa.) Dispatch during the U.S. Junior Amateur (he was the only Greater Cincinnatian to qualify), the attention got to him.
After an opening round 72, he got into a second-day bogey jag on the back nine that he couldn't shake and shot 80, missing the cutoff for match play by six strokes. It didn't help that a Golf Journal photographer was with him for the final nine holes.
Afterward, Kevin told his mother he was tired of all the attention. He wanted to be just another 16-year-old playing golf.
Why do I have to get so much more attention than everybody else?
“You'd better get used to it,” Jackie told him. “You're a human interest story, whether you like it or not. You're African-American, and you're deaf and people want to know about you. Either learn to live with it, or quit. There is no in-between for a tournament golfer. Whichever way you choose, we'll back you 100 percent.”
Kevin's response?
He was crushed. He didn't need hand signals to communicate that fact to his mother — she could see it in his face — but when he signed the words to her, she wasn't surprised.
“Great support, Mom,” he said.
He had felt his mother had let him down. Instead of getting a warm shoulder to cry on, he was being provided only a frosty veneer.
But it was exactly what he needed.
Jackie knew Kevin loved golf, knew he had loved the game the moment he had been introduced to it seven years ago by family friend, Sonny Barnes, knew Kevin would never let a camera, or a tape recorder, or an autograph seeker's slip of paper come between him and his dream. He wants to play on the pro tour someday.
On the drive from Pennsylvania into Ohio to play in the Toledo Minority Invitational, Hall holed up in the back seat of the family's mini-van with the book his father, Percy, had giv en him: “Golf is a Game of Confidence.“
Hall found solace and encouragement in a chapter about Brad Faxon shooting 63 in the final round of the 1995 PGA Championship. One shot at a time. Don't think about the failures of the past, don't think about what it would feel like to win this tournament. Hit the golf shot. This golf shot. Nothing more.
Hall knew who his competition would be in Toledo: Milton Caldwell, the hometown favorite, who is a sophomore at Jackson State and had won the tournament three straight times.
And what score did Hall shoot to defeat him?
Sixty-five the first day, 71 the second. He blew away the field.
“I came, I saw, I conquered,” Hall told his mother.
Last week, standing in front of St. Rita's to have his picture taken, Hall tells St. Rita's Sally Monahan of the lesson he had learned.
“The attention comes with being deaf,” he said. “It comes with being an African-American. My mom was right. She isn't always right. But she was right on that. I can handle it.”
Then his face broke out into that wonderful smile.
Warmth in a glance
On Tuesday, the day after Hall's return from Arizona, the Winton Woods players had a nine-hole scramble at Glenview Golf Course.
Going into the ninth of hole, Hall figured his team might need a birdie to win the match. He cut down ever so slightly on the oomph of his drive, so he'd have a better chance to hit the fairway, which he did — 292 yards down the middle. He had 203 left to the middle of the green. His three teammates hit their shots, none making the green; Hall reached for his 4-iron.
This time, he felt the sensation of the club digging through the turf and saw the divot jump. He watched the parabola of dark ball against blue sky, saw the ball disappear over the rise as it headed for the green.
From 210 yards away, behind the green, a muffled yell escaped from between the branches of a grove of trees. Hall couldn't hear it, although he knew his parents were back there somewhere. They had seen his ball bite into the green, kick up a spit of turf and come to rest 20 feet past the hole.
“I can't hear the roar of the gallery or the shouts from my teammates,” he said. “But I can see people's faces, their arms uplifted, the way they react. It's all in the way they look at me, act to me, talk to me. Those are warm gestures. I use those three things to tell me whether they appreciate my shot.”
At the end of the match, Hall was all smiles. He exchanged handshakes with everybody. His team had won, 30 to 32.
As Hall began to walk away from the green, with his golf bag slung over his shoulder, Roman Stacey — a teammate who has played in almost every team match with him this year as Winton Woods' No.2 player — reached into Hall's bag and pulled out the 4-iron.
Stacey grinned and pretended to snap the 4-iron over his knee.
Hall laughed.
Stacey's snapping motion didn't rekindle in Hall the memory of his snapping the tree twig four years earlier.
But for everybody else who knew the story, it reminded them of just how far Kevin had come.
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