If Sheila Drummond learned one thing from her hole-in-one last month, it's that a blind woman making an ace will never want for attention again.

"They e-mailed me from New Zealand, South Africa, China, Germany, Poland, all over the place," said Drummond, 53, who was blinded by diabetes in 1981. "I did 30 radio interviews after it happened. I was on Good Morning America.

"We were at Dorney Park when my father retired from PP&L, and people were coming up to me and talking to me. I had no clue. Lots of times I'd say, 'Who are you?' and they'd say, 'You don't know me, but we saw you on TV.' It's amazing."

Drummond, who will play in today's final round of the United States Blind Golf Association national championship at Edgmont Country Club, reached her milestone Aug. 19 at Mahoning Valley Country Club, near her Lehighton, Pa., home.

Using a driver on the 144-yard fourth hole, Drummond was set up to the hole by her coach and husband, Keith. Her shot cleared a water hazard, split two greenside bunkers, landed on the green, and hit the flagstick loud enough for her to hear as it went in.

"I jumped up and down and screamed and the people behind us thought it was me that got the hole-in-one," Keith Drummond said. "Then they found out it was her. It was very, very exciting."

Recalling the moment, Sheila Drummond said she was "kind of like in shock, kind of in a fog.

"I have no clue what anybody else did on that hole," she said. "I called some of my blind friends immediately to tell them. It was very exciting, but I never dreamed it would turn into something as big as it was."

She said she has checked to find out if any other blind women had ever recorded a hole-in-one. No one had any record of anyone doing it.

Drummond is a vibrant woman who has not let diabetes and the loss of her sight at age 26 slow her down. Since losing her sight, her list of outdoor activities has included riding a hot-air balloon, parasailing, rock climbing, rappelling, downhill skiing, cross-country skiing, roller skating and ice skating.

"What am I supposed to do, sit in a rocking chair?" she asked. "Since I started playing golf, and now I say it's an addiction, it's kind of consumed our entire life, so a lot of things that we used to do we don't do anymore. We just don't have enough time."

Drummond, who is at the golf course at least three times a week playing or practicing, took up golf 15 years ago and joined the Middle Atlantic Blind Golf Association. This is her 10th national championship, one in which she also is tournament director.

"People will say to me, 'Sheila, how do you play golf because golf is such a difficult sport for everybody, blind or sighted?'" she said. "It's like, blind and golf don't go together, but they can. I was 38 and blind when I started playing, so how crazy is that?"

She loves the camaraderie of her fellow blind and visually impaired golfers, both on the local and national levels. She also has had opportunities to compete in some special events, one for the paralysis foundation of the late actor Christopher Reeve, and another sponsored by LPGA player Michelle McGann to benefit diabetes.

"If I wasn't blind, I wouldn't be playing golf, I'd be working," she said. "I've had a lot of great opportunities. You have to turn a negative thing, or sometimes bad luck, into a positive."

Results. Drummond shot a 137 yesterday on the first day of the USBGA tournament to rank eighth in the B-1 (Totally Blind Division) flight. Jim Baker of Nashville led with a 115.

Bruce Hooper of San Antonio, a two-time champion, led the B-2 (Vision Impaired Division) flight with an 83, the best score of the day.

Tim Jackson of Galloway, Ohio, paced the B-3 (Vision Impaired Division) flight with a 97. In the Senior flight, George Jones of Hilton Head, S.C., and James Snow of New Castle, Pa., were tied at 135.

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Contact staff writer Joe Juliano at 215-854-4494 or jjuliano@phillynews.com.