Tag: hole-in-one

Forecaddie: PGA Tour commish aces famed island green at TPC Sawgrass

The Man Out Front is properly inspired to get his name on the board at TPC Sawgrass next as soon as the 17th re-opens.

On March 13, when the golf world last saw PGA Tour Commissioner Jay Monahan addressing the media after canceling the Players Championship, he looked like a man who had been through the ringer.

He looked like he hadn’t slept in days while weighing all the various scenarios of how to deal with a global pandemic that was on the verge of shutting down all of sports, let alone the economy. But after he answered the final question, he felt the need to add a parting shot.

“Can I say one more thing?” he asked as if someone might actually stop him. “Golf is the greatest game on the planet. There are a lot of golf courses in this country. There are a lot of people that are in this business, in this industry that make their living through this game, and I hope that everybody as they go through this uncertain time gets an opportunity to get out, play golf, be outside, support their PGA of America professional, support this game, be inspired by this game.”

The Forecaddie loved the sentiment then, and loves it even more now. Well, it turns out that The Commish walked the walk over at TPC Sawgrass, at least he did on April 26.

TPC Sawgrass hole-in-one
A plaque at TPC Sawgrass commemorates all the holes-in-one made there, with PGA Tour commissioner Jay Monahan’s ace as the most recent on April 26, 2020.

That was the last day that the famed island green at 17 was open before it was closed for some drainage work and Monahan made the most of his shot at glory – acing the par 3 hole. Other than perhaps the 7th at Pebble Beach, the 12th at Augusta National or the 16th at Cypress Point – can you think of a more memorable place for a hole-in-one?

TMOF knows of The Commish’s heroics because he went to drown his sorrows at the 19th hole at TPC Sawgrass after another forgettable round at TPC’s sister course, Dye’s Valley. On the way, TMOF stopped off to wash his hands – never washed hands so much, but we digress – and paused to look at the plaques commemorating all the aces at the eight par 3s on the two resort courses. There it was, the last person to walk off the 17th green feeling like a god, none other than Jay Monahan.

TMOF wishes he could tell you whether Monahan faded an easy 8 into the wind to a back pin or thinned a wedge and got lucky that it one-hopped into the hole or even if he celebrated with the official beer of the PGA Tour, Michelob Ultra. That’s because he’s as tight lipped about his game as he is about Conduct Unbecoming.

Let’s just say it’s a safe bet that Gary Koch would have described the shot as better than most. Better. Than. Most! And consider Monahan reminded yet again why golf is the greatest game on the planet and TMOF properly inspired to get his name on the board next as soon as the 17th re-opens later this summer.

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Brandt Snedeker on his little man’s ace, making a putt for $10 million, Tiger and teachers

Austin Snedeker ended up acing the No. 9 hole at The Little Course at Conner Lane in Franklin, Tennessee.

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While Brandt Snedeker usually rolls with his foot to the pedal and the speedometer at 100 mph, lately he’s been floating on a cloud looking down on cloud nine with a huge grin on his freckled face.

The nine-time PGA Tour winner and 2012 FedExCup champion who swings fast, plays fast and talks fast is reveling in his little man’s first hole-in-one that came earlier this week.

While holding the golf bag, Snedeker was witness as his son, Austin, 7, with a pitching wedge in hand, aced the ninth hole on the Little Course in Franklin, Tennessee. It was a bolt of welcomed lightning in the storm the COVID-19 global pandemic has delivered.

“Our household is pretty jacked up right now,” Snedeker said in a chat with Golfweek. “Absolutely flushed it, right at it, and it went right in the hole. It’s got those little foam things right now because of the COVID-19 stuff, but as a professional golfer, I can attest it would have gone in anywhere. He has me beat. I haven’t had a hole-in-one since he’s been born so he’s 1 up on me right now.”

But there was one slight problem. As is customary, little Austin couldn’t buy drinks to celebrate.

“He was worried about it because he didn’t have any cash on him,” Snedeker said. “I said I’d spot him this time and the next time you’re on your own.”

Snedeker, 39, is gearing up for golf’s scheduled return June 8 at the Charles Schwab Challenge. He is planning to play the first two events of the restart.

“We’re all wondering what it’s going to look like,” Snedeker said, ranked No. 48 in the world. “I think it’s time for us to try. The Tour has done a great job with a plan that it thinks will work. I’m excited about it. The Tour has done everything possible to get us ready to go.”

Snedeker touched on a lot of subjects with Golfweek, including what it’s like to make a putt for $10 million – which he did to win the 2012 FedExCup; how this time away from the game has allowed his oft-injured body to heal; and how impressed he is with teachers.

“I think I can speak for a lot of Americans who have found a new appreciation for teachers in this country and what they do on a daily basis,” he said. “I am not a teacher by any stretch of the imagination but it was a tough couple of months for me being a home-schooling dad. Those teachers put up with a lot of stuff I don’t have the patience for.”

And Snedeker talked at length about Tiger Woods.

“I tell all the young guys all the time, they say they want to see Tiger at his best, and I tell them they don’t,” he said. “You couldn’t beat him. I didn’t see Tiger in 2000, 2001, when he was just beating everybody by 20 shots. I saw him in ’07, ’08 and ’09 when he was beating all of us by 10.”

High school golfer Norman has two hole-in-ones in one round

Cy Norman of Benton, Illinois, did something few golfers have ever pulled off — sticking hole-in-ones on two different holes in one round.

Cy Norman looked out upon gray skies on Monday and, even though he loves to golf, he considered staying home rather than spending the day at Benton Country Club, which sits about 100 miles east of St. Louis.

Sure, Norman prides himself on hard work. In fact, as a member of the Benton High School golf team, the sophomore has put together a strategy — the three Cs — based on some of the PGA Tour’s biggest names.

This is how he describes each:

COMPETE (in honor of Tiger Woods): “It goes into preparation. Never giving up during a round, no matter how far behind we get.”

COMPOSURE (in honor of Rickie Fowler): “You can’t really tell how high or how low he is. You can’t really tell if he just made an eagle or a double.”

CLASS (in honor of Phil Mickelson): “You never see him get down or be disrespectful, He’s always congratulating the winner or if he wins, he’s nice and he’s finishing up class.”

So since he’s constantly trying to work on his game, the 15-year-old trudged out for a round of golf, knowing that storms might make the area around the course a little soupy.

Cy Norman is a sophomore at Benton Consolidated High School in Benton, Illinois. He posted two hole-in-ones in one round earlier this week. [Photo courtesy of AJGA]
In retrospect, he’s sure glad he made the trip.

Norman, whose dad is a coach, started playing golf at the age of three. He says he “started to take it seriously” at the age of eight.

But earlier this week, he did something very few golfers have ever pulled off — sticking hole-in-ones on two different holes in one round.

The first was on the fourth hole, which typically plays around 150 yards, but Norman said it was playing at 135 yards.

“It one-hopped in,” he said. “Some women from the third tee saw it go on.”

Obviously, Norman was ecstatic, even though this marked his third ace, so it wasn’t unfamiliar territory.

Soon after, his friend, former Benton teammate and recent graduate Collin Miller, saw him and paired up with him on the sixth hole. Norman explained what had already happened and Miller joked that Norman should do it again on the seventh hole, which is also a par-3.

It was about 120 to the pin with a slight breeze and Norman’s

It flew into the left side of the pin, went past it and had enough spin where it rolled back in.

“The second one, my buddy Collin and I just started going crazy,” he said.

Two aces. In a four-hole stretch.

According to the National Hole-In-One Registry, the odds of one player making two holes-in-one in the same round are 67 million-to-1.

Despite his accomplishments, Norman has stayed — like he speaks of Mickelson — classy. He doesn’t boast of his accomplishments, and in fact insists he’s been fortunate.

“I mean it’s just as much luck as it is skill. All the ones I’ve had could have easily hit the pin and ricocheted out,” he said.

Six-year-old’s hole-in-one is golfing family’s first

Lincoln Yarnell’s golf-loving family members have never posted an ace. But the 6-year-old did so at Palm Valley Golf Club in Florida.

Lincoln Yarnell comes from a family of avid golfers.

His father, Brion, his uncle, his grandfather and his 9-year-old sister, Reagan, all play.

Guess who’s got the first hole-in-one in the family?

Six-year-old Lincoln.

He broke the ace ice in the family by holing a 9-iron on May 8 at the Palm Valley Golf Club’s ninth hole, from 60 yards out last week. His tee shot landed on the front of the green and the ball rolled about 15 feet to a back-left hole position and into the cup. Just because the distance was short doesn’t mean Lincoln was playing with an advantage — the course has instituted temporary tee boxes on that hole and he was playing No. 9 at its current full yardage.

“I have to admit that my first thought when it went in was, ’Well, I’ve got to play catch-up to a 6-year-old,’ ” said Lincoln’s father Brion Yarnell. “He has a lot of family (members) who play golf, but he’s the first to get one.”

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Lincoln was playing with his father and sister. He shot 42 for the nine holes, but his father said he s dipped into the high 30s at Palm Valley since he began playing golf a year ago.

Lincoln had joined his father in making Tiger Woods his favorite player and despite having played basketball and soccer, he’s “obsessed with golf.”

Brion Yarnell said he’s not sure his son has fully grasped the significance of making a hole-in-one.

“He’s been badgering me to get back out and play golf,” he said. “He keeps saying he wants to go out and make another one.”

If only it were that easy.

Wisconsin husband-wife duo pull off back-to-back holes-in-one

The husband and wife of Steve Howe and Carolyn Barnett-Howe from Appleton made back-to-back holes-in-one at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie.

In the midst of a crippling pandemic and saddled with a major rebuilding project at home, a Wisconsin couple found a few minutes of sweet escape with the rarest of golf feats.

Thanks to two perfectly-struck 7-irons, the husband and wife of Steve Howe and Carolyn Barnett-Howe from Appleton made back-to-back holes-in-one on the 158-yard sixth hole on the Dye Course at PGA Golf Club in Port St. Lucie.

“It was amazing. Quite amazing,” Steve said, via phone from Florida.

Added Carolyn: “We’ve done a lot of things in golf, and that one was surreal. It was just plain, old fun.”

Steve, 69, and Carolyn, 57, were playing in the club’s weekly PGA member best-ball event with four other threesomes. When their group arrived at the sixth hole, Steve was first on the tee.

“His (tee shot) was just beautiful,” Carolyn said. “I started going ‘go in’ because it was on the pin the whole way. And then sure enough – I have very good eyesight – and I’m like, ‘That dropped. I saw it drop.’ ”

Carolyn Barnett-Howe and Steve Howe of Appleton hit back-to-back holes-in-one last week on the sixth hole on the Dye Course at the PGA Village Golf Club in Port St. Lucie, Fla. (Photo: Courtesy of Carolyn Barnett-Howe)

With COVID-19 safety guidelines to keep golfers from touching flagsticks, there were Styrofoam collars inside the hole which made it hard for the Howes to know if Steve’s shot actually went in the hole.

“You’re always not really sure because you can see the top half of the ball, but I’m like, ‘I saw that go down, Steve. I’m very sure you just made an ace.’ So we celebrated,” Carolyn said.

“In midair, he’s like, ‘Holy cow! Boy, does that look good.’ And it just landed perfectly and trickled and boom. He’s like, ‘You made it, too.’ We celebrated, but I’m thinking we’re going to get up there and mine’s going to be 6 inches behind the hole,” Carolyn said. “But when we got up there, they were just stuck together right in the hole.”

The Howes are in a hole-in-one club at PGA Golf Club, so their aces netted each of them a nice prize of $525. It was the 10th hole-in-one for Steve and the fifth for Carolyn.

“We would have thrown a real nice party afterward, but the clubhouse is closed for the coronavirus social distancing, so we couldn’t do that,” Steve said. “But when everything gets back to normal, we’ll put on a little bit of a party for everybody.”

Carolyn said the couple are “purists,” so they only count holes-in-one that come during a round. But both have had their own aces or witnessed others, sometimes with interesting circumstances.

Like the time years ago when Carolyn was working as an apprentice at Ridgeway Country Club in Neenah after college and was hitting shots during a Rotary Club outing hit-the-green contest. She was having trouble keeping her ball on the green on a windy day when Steve walked over.

“He walks out in tassled penny loafers. He asks for a ball. He tees it up. He puts one swing on it. It takes two hops, goes in the hole,” Carolyn said. “He looks at me and he says, ‘It’s really not that hard a shot.’ And he walked back into the clubhouse. I’m like, ‘Oh, my gosh.’ ”

Or the time when Carolyn and Steve were playing against some college kids. Steve hit his tee shot left of the hole and thinking it was out of bounds, he played a provisional. He calmly knocked that tee shot into the hole. When they got up to the green, they found his original tee shot under a pine tree and the boys made him play that ball.

“He knocks that on the green 30 feet away and he makes the putt for 3,” Carolyn said.

There was also a time when Steve was the pro at Ridgeway when, during a pro-am, two players made back-to-back holes-in-one.

“That was a story because the first person got whatever prize there was, and the second person got nothing,” Carolyn said with a laugh.

Carolyn and Steve, who own Swing Solutions in Appleton, had just finished an eight-week program for 100 high school golfers in Wisconsin before heading to Florida just before the pandemic started spreading and non-essential businesses were being closed.

Not getting to see those players and others compete after the WIAA canceled the spring sports season has been difficult.

“I think my empathetic system just kind of feels for those kids who lost their spring golf season, and all the kids who lost their spring sports. It’s important to them. In teen world, that’s as important as our jobs are to us,” Carolyn said. “So that was sad, especially for those seniors.”

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Carolyn will be heading back to Appleton in a couple of weeks. The couple’s home sustained heavy water damage this winter when a frozen pipe burst, and Steve said she wants to be home to pick out some of the new furnishings. He plans to stay in Florida a little longer before returning home.

With their home repairs and the golf season still somewhat in flux, the Howes at least have a fantastic memory from their time in Florida.

“It was something we’ve never experienced,” Carolyn said. “I’ll tell you what, that was a rush. It was really fun.”

Mike Sherry is a staffer for the Appleton Post-Crescent, part of the USA Today Network. Email him at msherry@postcrescent.com. Follow him on Twitter @MikeSherry14.

Grayson Murray goes wild after Honda Classic hole-in-one

Grayson Murray made a hole-in-one at the par-3 17th hole at PGA National in the third round of the Honda Classic.

When Grayson Murray made a hole-in-one at the par 13-17th at PGA National on Saturday, he followed it up with no less than five fist pumps, the final one complete with a cap toss. The 26-year-old had all the reason in the world to celebrate considering that precious few aces go down there. No. 17, playing 151 yards in the third round, marks the end of the infamous Bear Trap, one of the most daunting stretches in golf.

Interestingly, second-round leader Brendan Steele horse-shoed his tee shot around the hole at the 179-yard 15th hole on Friday. Murray’s shot at No. 17 on Saturday, however, took two hops and rolled right in.

Murray is the second young player to log a hole-in-one at the Honda Classic this week. Matthew NeSmith, also 26, holed out at the par-3 fifth on Thursday.

Murray’s ace marks the 25th on the PGA Tour so far this season. It is his fourth hole-in-one on the PGA Tour.

Murray finished the third round with an even-par 70. His round included two birdies in addition to the ace, but also a bogey and a triple-bogey at the par-4 fourth. At 1 over, Murray was tied for 27th by the time he finished his round mid-day.

Murray hails from Raleigh, North Carolina, and played college golf for Arizona State. His sole PGA Tour victory came at the 2017 Barbasol Championship.

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Matthew NeSmith aces fifth hole in opening round of Honda Classic

Matthew NeSmith holed out at the par-3 fifth hole, playing 186 yards, at PGA National with his 5-iron.

Chalk up the first East Coast ace of the year on the PGA Tour. Matthew NeSmith, a 26-year-old South Carolina alum, earned that honor in the opening round of the Honda Classic. NeSmith holed out at the par-3 fifth hole, playing 186 yards, at PGA National with his 5-iron.

The ace marks the 24th on the PGA Tour so far this season.

NeSmith’s hole-in-one came amid a colorful front-nine stretch. He had birdied the third hole before giving a shot back with a bogey at No. 4. He bookended the ace with another bogey then logged three more pars to close out the front nine at 1-under 34.

MORE: Leaderboard | Tee times | Betting odds | Fantasy

NeSmith’s card would have been clean on the back nine but for a double-bogey on the par-3 15th. He hit his tee shot way right and found water there.

He finished at 1-over 71 for the round.

The Honda Classic represents NeSmith’s 13th start in the 2019-20 PGA Tour season. He missed the first three cuts of the season but logged his best finish, a T-6, at last week’s Puerto Rico Open. Last season, NeSmith won the Albertsons Boise Open on the Korn Ferry Tour and earned PGA Tour membership for this season by finishing No. 1 in the Korn Ferry Tour Finals 25.

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Chez Reavie, Jon Rahm make holes-in-one Saturday at WGC-Mexico Championship

Chez Reavie and Jon Rahm both made holes-in-one Saturday during the third round at the WGC-Mexico Championship.

Putting is overrated.

It’s Moving Day at the World Golf Championships-Mexico Championship, and what better way is there to shoot up the leaderboard than with a hole-in-one?

During Saturday’s third round at Mexico City’s Club de Golf Chapultepec, both Chez Reavie and Jon Rahm, former Arizona State Sun Devils, made holes-in-one within minutes of each other.

Reavie was first, acing the 167-yard par 3 third hole. It was Reavie’s fifth hole-in-one made on the PGA Tour and his second in the last two months. The two-time winner on Tour aced the eighth hole during the final round of the QBE Shootout in December.

Rahm was next, one-hopping his ball into the bottom of the cup off the tee at the 158-yard par 3 17th. But why talk about it when we can just show you?

Rahm walked off the course T-5 at 11 under with the leaders still playing. Reavie is 2 under, T-29.

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Amateur golfer sinks two holes-in-one in same round

Gary Choyka’s ace on the par-3 third hole at LPGA’s Jones Course in Daytona Beach, Florida was matched later with another on the par-3 14th.

The odds are so impossible to grip mentally, accomplishing such a thing led everyone to offer Gary Choyka an obvious piece of advice.

“They all said I should go play the lottery,” he said.

But Choyka had already enjoyed a small windfall, plenty enough to cover rounds of drinks at LPGA International after a recent hole-in-one.

“Hey, barkeep, make it a double!”

That’s right, Choyka’s ace on the par-3 third hole at LPGA’s Jones Course in Daytona Beach, Florida, was matched a couple hours later with yet another hole-in-one on the par-3 14th.

“You talk about experiences in golf. It has to be one of the best,” Choyka said.

Well, certainly among the rarest. Odds of an amateur acing a hole are generally listed at 12,500-to-1. Odds against that second ace in the same round: An astounding 67 million-to-one.

Odds of a professional golfer making an ace are roughly 10 times better than an amateur. A second ace by a pro? In the entire history of the PGA Tour, it’s happened just three times, most recently by Brian Harman five years ago.

For what it’s worth, it’s the second time it’s happened in the Daytona Beach area in the past year. Port Orange golfer Jerry Bass did it at Crane Lakes Golf Club in Port Orange, Florida, last February.

Choyka’s aces both came with a 7-iron. No. 3 was playing 152 yards slightly into the wind, while the 14th was playing the opposite direction at 162 yards.

Some aces involve more luck than others, but “I hit both shots well,” said Choyka, 67, a retired school teacher and basketball coach from the Philadelphia area who carries a 10.5 handicap index. The third hole, he suggested, carries some sort of golfing mojo for him.

On the third tee, he watched as one playing partner and then another hit amazing tee shots to within 18 inches of the cup.

“The first one looked like it was going in,” he said. “And the second one, too — we were saying, ‘Go in, go in.’ Then I get up and hit, and it goes in. Amazing.”

It was on that same third hole, last April, in the same Wednesday group of about 20 golfers, where Choyka stood with his foursome and watched Tammie Green — retired LPGA Tour golfer and member of the Wednesday group — pluck her ball out of the cup after an ace. Choyka, moments later, did the same for his first-ever hole-in-one.

Choyka isn’t an overly excitable sort, but said he was a bit amped internally when he reached the fourth tee after his first ace.

“You can see where my scores went up after the first one,” he said, noting that he followed the ace with a double-bogey and played the next six holes in 7-over par.

Bryan Murphy, another Wednesday regular, was playing a couple of foursomes ahead of Choyka two weeks ago.

“I think I was on No. 4 or 5 and I got a text, ‘Gary just aced No. 3,’ ” recalls Murphy. “Later, we’re coming up the 16th and I get another text saying Gary had an ace on 14. The guys with me were saying, ‘Wait a minute, is that the same text as before or did he do it again?’ It was pretty amazing.”

On No. 3, Choyka had a good view of the ball the whole way as it caught a left-to-right slope and tracked cleanly into the cup. On 14, the sun’s glare made it impossible to follow the ball the whole way, but he knew he’d hit it well and figured it was close.

“We couldn’t see it,” he said. “I thought I was about three feet to the left. Once it hits the green, it’s going wherever it wants to go. Somebody up there was looking down and saying, ‘OK, we’ll give you this one.’

“Golf is such a humbling sport. You have your ups and downs. Fortunately, that day someone was looking down on me.”

In the Wednesday group — it’s also a Monday and Friday group for most — everyone contributes to a hole-in-one pot, and while Choyka declined to divulge his winnings from that day, he said it was more than worthwhile to adhere to the golfing custom of picking up the post-round bar tab.

And yes, he did follow everyone’s advice to take a stab at that day’s lottery.

“So I played,” he said. “Didn’t win.”

Some odds are just too long.

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A Friday ace accelerated Scott Piercy’s climb up the Phoenix Open leaderboard

By the time play finished Friday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Scott Piercy was within striking distance of the top spot.

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By the time play finished Friday at the Waste Management Phoenix Open, Scott Piercy was within striking distance of the top spot on the leaderboard. He was eight spots closer to it on Friday than the day before, thanks to a second-round 6-under 65.

The effort can’t quite be called “sneaky” considering that Piercy’s round included two eagles, one of which was a hole-in-one at the par-3 seventh.

Piercy becomes the second man to record an ace this week (the 19th on Tour this season, for those wondering) after leader J.B. Holmes did the same at No. 4 during the first round.

PHOENIX OPEN: Scores | Tee times, TV info | Updates | Photos
MORE: Complete list of holes-in-one made this season

There’s an obvious drawback for both of those achievements: They didn’t happen at the wild par-3 16th, the hole famously surrounded by stadium seating.

“I guess whenever you make a hole-in-one in Phoenix it’s pretty awesome. But I just did it on the wrong side where everybody didn’t see it,” Piercy said of the less populous seventh hole.

Piercy holed out from 194 yards at No. 7. After starting his round on the back side, it was a welcome boost to the end of the round. He gave one back at No. 9 with his only bogey of the day.

Piercy will start the weekend at 10 under and in solo fifth, three shots behind Holmes. He has not finished inside the top 10 in a PGA Tour event since the 2019 AT&T Byron Nelson last May.

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