Norman Kritz
2026 Adaptive Golf Hall of Fame Inductee
Norman Kritz was a highly esteemed and foundational figure within the blind golf community, holding prominent credentials as a lifetime leader and coach with the Middle Atlantic Blind Golf Association. Professionally, Kritz was a registered pharmacist based out of Cherry Hill, New Jersey. He combined his clinical precision with a deeply empathetic humanitarian approach to cofound the Middle Atlantic Junior Blind Golfers, an organization he guided with distinction for over thirty-three years.
Service and Leadership to the Game
Norman Kritz represents the absolute pinnacle of service and leadership within the realm of specialized youth athletics, widely regarded by his peers as a definitive pillar of blind golf. Renowned for his infectious smile, quiet humility, and an innate ability to bring out the best in everyone he encountered, Kritz approached the sport not merely as a game, but as a transformative vehicle for hope, dignity, and social equality. His journey into adaptive instruction began through his personal volunteerism as a coach for a senior blind golfer. Recognizing a profound societal void, specifically that very few athletic teams or traditional youth organizations allowed blind children to participate or compete, Kritz envisioned a structured program designed to provide visually impaired youth with a sense of normalcy and belonging. Alongside senior blind golfer Gil Kayson and PGA Professional Al Balukis, he established the Middle Atlantic Junior Blind Golfers. From its humble beginnings of utilizing cut-down adult clubs and hosting only two outings per year, Kritz single-handedly built the premier junior blind golf organization in the United States. Operating strictly on a volunteer basis, Kritz never accepted a single penny of compensation for his three decades of exhaustive administrative work. His leadership ensured that no child was ever turned away, and he actively encouraged siblings to join, creating a culture where families felt genuinely supported and less isolated. He maintained an active coaching role well into his nineties, remaining the vibrant heartbeat of the association until his passing in June 2023.
Growth of Game Impact
The quantitative and qualitative impact of Kritz's work is extraordinary, particularly given the historically low-incidence demographic population he served. By his own verified count, Kritz directly introduced and transitioned more than 750 blind and visually impaired children into the sport of golf. While his primary operational footprint targeted the regional sectors of Southeastern Pennsylvania, Southern New Jersey, and Delaware, his innovative methods, bolstered in later years by digital outreach, ultimately reached and benefited children as far away as Connecticut, South Carolina, and Colorado. He systematically integrated PGA instructors to deliver high-quality professional lessons and personally trained an extensive network of volunteers to provide specialized, on-course guidance. These efforts established a stable, multigenerational community of coaches and players, forging deep personal relationships that endured for decades. By equipping blind children with a sport they could play alongside their sighted peers for the rest of their lives, Kritz provided these youth with a permanent social icebreaker, creating common ground for discussion at neighborhood gatherings and ensuring everyone stood on equal terms through the joy of shared competition.
Initiatives
Kritz possessed a remarkable talent for transforming simple recreational outings into comprehensive, life-changing community initiatives. Under his direction, the Middle Atlantic Junior Blind Golfers became the only junior blind golf program in the nation to provide children with top-tier equipment, professional PGA instruction, and monthly tournament outings at no cost to their families. Kritz took immense personal joy in independently sourcing and delivering brand-new, customized youth club sets and golf gear to his players. He structured every monthly outing to conclude with a communal banquet where players, families, and coaches ate together to share their personal stories. Expanding his vision past traditional driving ranges, Kritz independently designed and developed two specialized chip-and-putt golf courses at prominent educational institutions for the sight-impaired, establishing the first course at the Overbrook School for the Blind in Philadelphia and a second at the New York Institute for Special Education in the Bronx. His long-term initiative was to systematically construct similar accessible courses at schools for the blind across the entire country.
Previous Awards and Honors
Though Norman Kritz was an exceptionally humble man who rarely discussed his personal achievements, his thirty years of service garnered elite civic and sports recognition. He was honored nationally by the prestigious Seeing Eye organization, which feted him as their illustrious "Man of the Year". His contributions to the growth of the game were formally celebrated through major commendations from the Philadelphia PGA Section. Furthermore, his monumental impact on youth development was recognized through official, joint honors bestowed by the Pennsylvania Senate and House of Representatives, alongside matching institutional honors from the New Jersey Commission for the Blind. True to his character, Kritz always resisted individual accolades, famously reminding his volunteers that their true compensation was paid in the smiles of the children and parents they served.
Please note, information for this career biography was created from Norman Kritz’s Hall of Fame Nomination Package.