Lynne Lazaro carries on father’s blind golf legacy

As a child, Lynne Lazaro always made sure to keep her toys off the ground. She made sure to leave doors in her house either closed or wide open, never in between.

Lynne and her family took these measures to make life easier for her father Joe, who was blind.

“I marveled at what my dad could do in total darkness,” said Lazaro, a Weston resident.

Like many dads, her father would spend time doing yardwork and fixing items around the house.

Another thing Joe Lazaro could do in total darkness was play golf. And in the 1950s, he became one of the founding members of the United States Blind Golf Association (USBGA).

Blind golf is played with two people on a team. A visually impaired player swings the club and hits the ball, aided by a partner who describes where and how to hit each shot.

At the 2025 USBGA Championships, Lynne Lazaro joined her father as an inductee in the association’s Hall of Fame.

Lazaro became actively involved with the USBGA in 2016. She sat on the board of directors as a sighted representative from 2018 to 2023. Today, Lazaro serves as secretary of the association.

“It was overwhelming at first,” Lazaro said when she learned about her induction. “It feels great that they all thought of me.”

Lazaro organizes blind golf clinics for the USBGA, and is focused on continuing the growth and accessibility of the game, she said.

“It gives me great joy to see a smile on the face of a blind student when they hear the sound of a golf ball going into the hole,” said Lazaro. “They realize that this might be possible for them to do.”

In the 1960s, Lazaro said her father wanted to take a trip to Europe to demonstrate that it was possible for blind people to play golf.

Lazaro said the “idea of blind people playing golf took hold” only after the turn of the 21st century. For the last two decades, the USBGA has offered clinics to students at the nearby Perkins School for the Blind in Watertown.

“The game has been played for 79 years and people are still learning of its existence,” she said.

Lazaro has carried on her father’s pursuit of growing the game. Along with her duties as secretary, she is on the USBGA membership and handicap committees.

“Her contributions span website redesign, membership accessibility, tournament support and advocacy for blind and visually impaired golfers nationwide,” a USGBA press release states.

Part of her website redesign included making scoresheets, results and other information more accessible for blind people using the internet.

Lazaro said she tries to help out in any way she can, whether it’s in an office setting or out on the golf course. Just like how blind golfers use their partner’s eyes, Lazaro said blind board members use her eyes to see things.

“I feel incredibly proud to continue the work my dad started, increasing awareness that people with disabilities can do anything they want,” said Lazaro. “They just have to do it in a different way.”

Joe Lazaro died in 2013 at the age of 95. He was inducted in the honorary USBGA Hall of Fame class in 2016. He was also inducted into the Massachusetts Golf Hall of Fame.

“I am honored to carry on my Dad’s legacy of, ‘You can do it if you have the passion, will and someone who will be your eyes every now and then,’” said Lazaro.