Are you lucky or good at golf?
Do you need to be lucky, or good, to make a hole-in-one? Have you made one? If you have, I suspect yours has a story behind it.
On our radio program it has been a running gag that my partner Mitch Juricich has not made one in nearly 50-years of playing golf. Personally, it took me about 28 years, and many rounds of golf to make one. When I made my first, I expected the clouds to part and the band to start playing, but I had to go to the next hole.
Making one is special and I’ve heard loads of stories about them. Each of my 6 holes in one has a story. Oh…4-official, and two unofficial for me. The two unofficial were in charity events where I hit shots for each group on a given hole, and in two events I sank a shot for an ace…very exciting.
Did you hear the story about Jackie Gagne? On January 23rd of 2007, she made her first hole-in-one, and four days later she recorded another. By the time July rolled around, Gagne claimed to have made 16 of the elusive aces. Unbelievable? Well, it turns out that many of those were not witnessed, and Gagne has lost her club membership in Palm Springs, broke up with her partner, and left the area. It appears to have been a hoax.
My Dad made one once and had a witness…our dog Junior. How about the best golf TV ad ever, where the kid makes the hole-in-one and then the golf course Superintendent shows up as the witness………… really good.
As luck would have it, we recently heard of a blind woman making an ace, a woman nearly 100 years old making one, and groups where there have been multiple aces in the same pairing. We heard a story once on the radio program about a guy on a par-4 that cut the corner of the dog-leg and could not find his ball. When he got to the green the ball was in the hole -- an amazing 350 yards away. Another caller claimed to have put the ball in the hole after several shots hit into their group, and then revelled in watching the suspect buy drinks after the round.
Growing up, my best golfing friend made about five before we were 18-years old, and I never made one until I had played nearly 30 years of golf. I did come close once, plugging the ball in the lip of the cup on a rainy day. I thought surely that counts, but under USGA rules, it did not reach the bottom of the hole.
You need to have a level of skill to get the ball close enough to have a chance to go in, but luck is important. A friend of my son named Cameron clipped a tree limb and they lost sight of the ball in the morning sun. Giving up, my son went to putt out and... voila!... the ball was in the hole -- Cameron’s first ace.
So Mitch and others, there is hope for you, and when it happens, I’ll gladly join you for a cocktail.
