On Monday, Pilz will join about two dozen of the best blind golfers in the country, and one from Canada, at this Delaware County club for the first of two days in the United States Blind Golf Association's 65th National Championship.
McIntyre, who has been coaching blind golfers for 20 years, says it is her job to give a "visual image" of the course and set the angle of the club behind the ball. The rest is up to the player.
Pilz relies on that vivid description from his coach when hitting the ball. He can hear the water in the creek and feel the breeze, but he can't see how far away the tree line is, or if the fairway slopes left or right.
"When you lose your sight, this becomes a team sport," says Pilz, a 2008 national champion, who shoots in the low 100s. "It is a communication thing."
Pilz, a lineman for Philadelphia Electric before injuries from a car accident stole his sight, was introduced to the sport while a Veterans Administration rehab patient in the early 1960s.
"I took [golf] on as everything else I did since I lost my sight - as a challenge," said Pilz, of King of Prussia. "And it is a challenge."
Now retired after a career with AT&T and his own business, Pilz spends two or three days a week playing more than 40 courses around the region with his golfing buddies in the 100-member Middle Atlantic Blind Golf Association, which includes part-time coaches.
Reaching the green on this morning at Edgmont, Pilz paces off the space between the ball and the pin with McIntyre at his side - his way of visualizing the slope and distance. The two then mull the possibilities for his next shot.
"I'm going to say it's going to break right," advises McIntyre, 66, of Glen Mills, who will be a tournament volunteer.
