Andrew Von Lossow grew up in a golf shop. His dad ran Von’s Golf and Putter Studio in Seattle until retiring three years ago. It’s the kind of golf-immersed upbringing that brings a man like Von Lossow, 32, to operate an Instagram revolving entirely around lead tape (see: @leadtapechronicles).
“I’ve been around the game my whole life,” he said.
Given that, there remained a surprising pair of boxes unchecked for Von Lossow, who currently plays to a plus-3 handicap. He took care of one this week in the most memorable of ways: Von Lossow holed his first ace in the practice round for his U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifier on Oct. 6 then came back the next day and aced the exact same hole.
Von Lossow, who plays out of Indian Canyon, a public course in his hometown of Spokane, Washington, had only ever made a hole-in-one on an executive-length course.
On Oct. 5, he played a practice round for the following day’s U.S. Amateur Four-Ball qualifier at Wine Valley Golf Club in Walla Walla, Washington. He stood on the tee and watched his friend run his tee shot seemingly right past the pin on the 163-yard hole.
“I get up there right after him, I hit an 8-iron from 163, kind of a flighted shot, a little lower, a little breeze, not much,” Von Lossow said. “It lands 20 feet short and left of the hole. It took two hops, took the ridge, had pretty good speed and the hole just gobbled it up.
“We were going nuts. I threw my hat in the air.”
That was just before 5 p.m. The next day, Von Lossow was in the first group off at 8 a.m. with his partner Alex Simcox and reached the 14th hole just before noon. The other players in his group had heard about his good fortune the day before.
This time, the 14th was playing 157 yards, to a pin on the far right quadrant of the green. Von Lossow flushed a 9-iron with a two-yard cut that took one bounce, checked up and started rolling toward the hole.
Then it disappeared. Again.
“Instead of the hat throw, I did the club drop and just put my arms out to the side,” Von Lossow said. “Then it hit me, that went in again.”
After the first hole-in-in one, the post-round celebration was somewhat tame, Von Lossow said, because a spot in the USGA championship was still on the line. On the day of the qualifier, Von Lossow admitted he didn’t know too many people in the field with whom to celebrate.
“It might be a two-part series,” he said.
The only bit of bad news was that despite the hole-in-one, Von Lossow and Simcox still failed to qualify for the Four-Ball. They tied for seventh and missed advancing by three shots.
Von Lossow remains without a USGA start on his resume (he’ll keep trying), but there have been plenty of Pacific Northwest golf events. He finished 15th in the Washington State Amateur this summer and after his Four-Ball qualifier this week, immediately teed it up in the PNW Pacific Golf & Turf Pro Amateur.
Von Lossow has worked as a caddie and now is making use of a graphic design degree to start his own apparel company called Glen Cove Trading Company.
The elder Von Lossow mostly does hickory club repair since closing the golf shop a few years ago. Father and son played the World Hickory Open in Scotland in 2018.
If there’s something golfy, chances are Von Lossow has done it.
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