Tag: Holes-in-one

Florida man makes hole-in-one on same hole in consecutive rounds

Raymond Brunelle used an 8-iron and then a pitching wedge to accomplish this amazing feat.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Raymond Brunelle knows how special a hole-in-one is in golf. He hadn’t had one in almost a half century.

He was thrilled when he aced the par-3 16th on the Heritage Course at The Club at Ibis on Oct. 2 with an 8-iron from 160 yards even though he wasn’t certain until he found the ball in the hole.

“It was kind of hazy that day,” the 63-year-old Brunelle said. “We saw it bounce toward the hole and disappear, but we weren’t absolutely sure it was in the hole or hidden behind the pin. When we got to the green, we didn’t see and, sure enough, it was in the hole.”

Four days later, Brunelle, who lives in West Palm Beach, returned to the 16th hole at the Heritage, knowing the golf gods are good at extracting their revenge.

“I just didn’t want to embarrass myself,” he said. “I was hoping just to make a par.”

Instead, using a pitching wedge from 128 yards, it was déjà vu all over again as the ball disappeared into the hole. And this time, they could celebrate on the tee.

“There was no question it went in the hole,” Brunelle said. “I had two hole-in-ones as a junior, but to make two in a row on the same hole … What are the odds of making two hole-in-ones in the same week, let alone consecutive rounds, with different clubs, different tees and different conditions.”

But the same result.

Raymond Brunelle
The scorecard for Raymond Brunelle showing his hole-in-one on the par-3 16th hole at the Heritage Course at The Club in West Palm Beach, Florida, on Oct. 2, 2021. Photo by Raymond Brunelle

The odds of the average golfer making a hole-in-one are 12,500-to-1 and it happens once every 3,500 rounds, according to the National Hole-in-One Registry. The odds of a player making two holes-in-one in the same round is 67-million-1.

Normally, making a pair of holes-in-one can be an expensive deal. The player traditionally is supposed to buy drinks for everyone in the clubhouse. At The Club at Ibis, members who make a hole-in-one are given a $50 credit to take care of their friends.

Brunelle has a new best friend – the 16th at Heritage. During his next round on the hole Wednesday, he hit it to 8 feet. No hat trick, but definitely not embarrassing.

“When I step on that tee, I feel like, “Yeah, I got this hole,’” he said.

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Pair of aces in Arkansas lifts Nasa Hataoka to fifth career LPGA title

Nasa Hataoka became just the fifth player in LPGA Tour history to make two aces in one tournament.

After a pair of aces in two days, Nasa Hataoka couldn’t have made it look easier to start the Walmart NW Arkansas Championship.

It didn’t end that way though, as a shaky three-putt par on the last gave Hataoka the one-stroke cushion needed to collect her fifth career title. The powerfully petite Japanese player finished at 16-under 197 for the week at Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arkansas.

“It was really, really stressful, especially after the bogey,” said Hataoka of the dropped shot on the 13th that could’ve been much worse had her racing putt not hit the hole and popped up.

Minjee Lee put a solid stroke on a final birdie attempt that slid by the hole to finish tied with Eun-Hee Ji at 15 under. Ji got up and down from a greenside bunker behind the green using only her putter.

Danielle Kang and Yuka Saso both shot 65 to finish in a share of fourth. Saso carded two eagles on Sunday including a sensational approach shot into the 18th with a 5-wood that stopped 4 feet from the hole. After a month off from the tour, she was pleased with the week.

Kang, who debuted as a pro at Pinnacle, said she’s focused on finishing the season strong.

“I’m actually very proud of the work that I’ve done this week,” she said. “I left a lot out there, but I was mentally in a really great place.”

Arkansas stars Stacy Lewis and Maria Fassi played together on Sunday. Lewis’s 66 moved her into a share of sixth at 12 under. Fassi, who launched her foundation this week, struggled to a 73 in the final round and dropped to T-51.

“I played really solid,” said Lewis. “Just never really got the putter going any day. I mean, today I made five birdies and three of them were within about a foot and a half and one was a chip-in.”

India’s Aditi Ashok, who came within one shot of a medal at the Olympics, took a share of eighth.

“I feel like I did good,” Ashok said of the boost she received from Tokyo, “and that was a huge takeaway. I feel like I can actually play well out here, and not just struggle to make putts. I can finish well, like I did in my rookie year. I had a top 10; the second year I had a couple top 10s. After that it’s been a bit of a dry spell.”

Hataoka has now passed Hiromi Kobayashi for third-most victories by a Japanese player, trailing Ayako Okamoto (17) and Ai Miyazato (9).

LPGA Walmart NW Arkansas Championship
Nasa Hataoka poses after making a hole-in-one on the 11th hole during the first round of the LPGA NW Arkansas Championship at the Pinnacle Country Club in Rogers, Arkansas. Photo by Kyodo via AP Images

Hataoka’s ace on Friday came on No. 11 when she struck a 9-iron from 135 yards. Saturday’s hole-in-one came on the sixth hole from 175 yards with a 5-iron.

She became just the fifth player in LPGA Tour history to make two aces in one tournament – the first since Ayako Uehara at the 2016 CP Women’s Open – and is the fourth to do it in back-to-back rounds. Hataoka is also the fourth player to have at least two aces in two different seasons, joining Betsy King (2, 1979 and 2, 1990), Meg Mallon (2, 1999 and 2, 2001) and Charlotta Sorenstam (2, 2001 and 3, 2002).

For the aces, CME Group will donate $20,000 to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

“I’m also happy that I got the hole-in-ones,” said Hataoka, “but on the other hand, I’m really, really happy to be able to help the St. Jude’s Children’s Hospital. That’s what makes my really happy.”

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‘It’s just unbelievable’: Florida duo posts consecutive holes-in-one during tournament

The odds of pulling this off were 17,000,000 to 1.

A golfer who hits a hole-in-one at the Heritage Oaks Golf & Country Club receives not only congratulatory handshakes from playing partners, but a plaque on one of the club walls.

The plaque contains the golfer’s name, the hole aced and its yardage, along with the date. But the back-to-back, holes-in-one recorded by Georges Lussier and David Brown really deserve plaques that stand out from the rest.

Perhaps one plaque, twice as large as the others, or even bigger. The odds of a golfer striking a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1. The odds of pulling off what Lussier and Brown did last Thursday at a Florida State Golf Association (FSGA) one-day event are just a wee bit higher.

17,000,000 to 1.

“We were just amazed,” said Lussier, a 69-year-old retired mortgage banker and 36-year Sarasota resident, “and so were the two guys we were playing with, obviously.”

“It’s just unbelievable,” said Brown, a 61-year-old St. Petersburg resident, realtor, and former club pro in Maine. “It’s so rare. And to do it in back-to-back swings. Talk about a (career) highlight. And to have it be with a friend of mine.”

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Because Lussier and Brown both play every Saturday in a foursome, they requested to be paired together for the event at Heritage. They were joined by Kurt Wicklund and Andrew Weiss, two golfers they didn’t know. When the group reached the par-3, 155-yard No. 15 hole, Wicklund and Weiss shot first.

Grabbing his 7-iron, Lussier, a 10-handicapper, drove his ball straight down the middle. “I saw it hit the green and that’s all I saw. I knew I hit it straight at the hole.”

“I could see it land, but I couldn’t see it run up,” said Brown, who owns a 6 handicap. “We’re not jumping up and down screaming.” Brown then selected an 8-iron to hit a shot so well, he said to Lussier, “That’s got a chance to be inside your ball.”

The two got in their cart and drove to the green, where Wicklund and Weiss already stood, and spotted two balls, each about 15 feet past the hole. “We thought those were our balls,” Lussier said. “I got out of the cart,” Brown said, “and said, ‘Georges, this is weird. Why are there no balls up by the hole?’” Because it had rained and the greens were soft, Brown spotted two balls marks, one a foot in front of the hole, the other 10 feet in front.

One of Lussier’s and Brown’s playing partners then walked up to the hole and said, “There’s two balls in the hole.” Once the shock had worn off, Wicklund and Weiss proceeded to putt for a birdie and par, meaning the foursome was 5-under for the hole.

Last month, in England, two men recorded consecutive holes-in-one, each using the same club. But in July, at the Penobscot Valley Country Club in Orono, Maine, something perhaps even more rare happened to Steve Norton and Susan Hunter. After Norton recorded an ace on the 154-yard No. 4 hole. Hunter followed him with an almost identical shot. But as her ball neared the hole, it deflected away.

Actually, it had gone in the hole, but since COVID-19, golf courses in Maine were mandated either to turn the cup upside down in the hole, or place inside a piece of foam, the idea being golfers could avoid germs from touching the bottom of the cup. With Norton’s ball already in a hole with a shallower bottom, Hunter’s ball popped up , depriving the two the notoriety now shared by Lussier and Brown.

It was Lussier’s third hole-in-one and Brown’s second, his first coming in his 20s. As for back-to-back aces, he said it’s never been done on the PGA or European tours.

“A lot of people get holes-in-one,” Brown said.

No one does this.

Hey, Heritage, spring for the bigger plaque.

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Florida man makes three holes-in-one in five days: ‘I just have had a lot of luck’

“They call me Ace now, though.”

Jim Wolklin had three of a kind from Feb. 12-16 at Heritage Bay Golf & Country Club in Naples.

Three of a kind as in three aces.

“Just a wild time,” Wolklin said last week.

Golf has been pretty wild for Wolklin since he got back into the game in the 1980s. The three holes-in-one at Heritage Bay gave him a total of 11.

“When you least expect them, they go in the hole,” said Wolklin, 68. “It’s when you’re not thinking about it, and you’re just trying to make par.”

Wolklin’s wild stretch started on Feb. 12 on No. 13 on the Cypress Course, holing out with an 8-iron from 144 yards with Gary Bradbury, Brad Kroll and Randy Johnson witnessing. Three days later, Wolklin made his second on the 148-yard No. 21 Oak with a 7-iron, with David Foltz, Anthony Nizzardo and Michael McCarthy witnessing. The third was the next day, with his wife Cheryl, Steve Kosek and Mary Kosek witnessing the 9-iron from 130 yards on No. 26 on the Oak Course.

“It’s regular rounds playing with friends,” Wolklin said. “I hit a good shot and then it’s one or two bounces right in the hole.”

“I actually thought his was in,” Wolklin said. “Another player standing on the tee box said it rolled right by the hole.”

On the second one, Wolklin’s playing partners had never witnessed an ace.

“You’re not going to believe this, but I had one on Friday,” he told them afterward.

On the last ace, his wife Cheryl got to witness it when the two of them and another couple were playing near dusk.

“We got up on the green and there was one ball on the green, and we knew that there were two balls going toward the green,” he said. “We were getting closer and closer, and there’s definitely a ball in the hole. I look down and it’s my ball in the hole.”

Mary Kosek’s ball was the other on the green, and 4 feet away. She made her birdie putt.

“That was one of the most rewarding things,” Wolklin said.

Wolklin, who played golf in high school, has been at Heritage Bay for two years after being a member at Lost Lakes in Hobe Sound. His home club is Stanton Ridge Golf & Country Club in Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. Seven of his aces have been there, with the other coming at Somerset Hills Country Club in Bernardsville, New Jersey. For that one, his son Luke was caddying for him.

“I just have had a lot of luck,” said Wolklin, who owned boat dealerships and catering halls, and still owns a hotel and one hall. “I don’t know what to tell you. I play with pros and some of them don’t have any.”

But there is that expectation from his playing partners when Wolklin steps up on the tee at a par 3 he has to try to block out.

“When we get to a par-3, and I set up, the people are expecting it to go in the hole, which adds a little bit of pressure,” Wolklin said.

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Campbell golf teammates make holes-in-one in same round

For the second time in a week, two golf teammates made a hole-in-one in the same round.

For the second time in a week, two golf teammates made a hole-in-one in the same round.

Campbell University’s Edwin Blomander and Henrik Lilja are the latest pair to pull off the trick on Sunday. Five days ago, two high school teammates in Arizona pulled it off. The high school kids did it on the same hole in consecutive groups.

Blomander is a junior and Lilja is a sophomore. They are both from Sweden.

In a tweet announcing the feat, Campbell asked about the odds of two aces in the same round.

The National Hole-In-One Registry reports that the odds are 67 million to 1.

#RollHumps, indeed.

Two Arizona high school teammates ace the same hole in season’s first match

High school golfer Cody Besetti: “Once I hit the ball and saw where it as going, I thought to myself, ‘Holy crap, this might have a chance.'”

Here’s something good to remember about 2020.

In Arizona, in the Phoenix Desert Vista High School’s first boys golf match of the season on Tuesday, two Thunder players finished their matches by acing the 156-yard, par-3 ninth hole at the Arizona Country Club, both using an 8 iron.

First, sophomore Ross Koscis finished up his round with his first-ever hole-in-one.

“I didn’t even realize it until I walked up to the green,” he said. “My coach was the first one to see it in the hole, because he drove up to the green. When he saw it, he screamed, ‘You made a hole-in-one!”

Koscis said he started jumping up and down after he heard coach Matt Russo say that.

In the next group, it was junior Cody Besetti’s turn.

“It was insane,” Besetti said. “When I got to the ninth hole, I asked my coach if Ross actually got an ace or if it was a typo. I couldn’t believe it. So I got up to the hole and my coach said, ‘Show me what you can do.’

Cody Besetti
Phoenix Desert Vista High School junior golfer Cody Besetti celebrates his hole-in-one on the 156-yard, par-3 ninth hole at the Arizona Country Club. He used an 8 iron. Photo by Matt Russo

“Once I hit the ball and saw where it as going, I thought to myself, ‘Holy crap, this might have a chance.’ Once it slowly rolled into the side of the hole, I started freaking out and my coach just stood there in disbelief that he just saw two holes-in-one in a row after never seeing one before. I don’t even know how I reacted since I was so caught up in the moment. I felt like I was on top of the world.”

Russo wasn’t able to capture the actual hole-in-one by each golfer on video, but he made a video them each holding the ball on the green to commemorate the moments.

In his memo to the school on Wednesday, Russo wrote, “If I had video of the actual shots, we would belong on Sportscenter.”

“It really was one of the most amazing things you can see in sports for it to happen twice in a row on the same hole,” Russo said.

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Back-to-back holes-in-one for Arkansas golfers

Brian Hagewood and JD Clark posted back-to-back aces at the Memorial Day Weekend Four-Ball at Maumelle Country Club in Arkansas.

The National Hole-in-One Registry says that the odds of a PGA Tour pro getting a hole-in-one is 3,000-to-1.

It also says the average golfer has a 12,000-to-1 shot at making an ace.

But what about the odds for back-to-back holes-in-one?

The answer to that is 17 million to 1.

But that’s just what Brian Hagewood and JD Clark did at the Memorial Day Weekend Four-Ball at Maumelle Country Club in Arkansas on Saturday.

Back-to-back holes-in-one by Brian Hagewood and JD Clark at the Memorial Day Weekend Four-Ball at Maumelle Country Club in Arkansas.

It all went down on the par-3 eighth hole, which was playing 124 yards.

Hagewood used a pitching wedge to land his ball on the green and watched as it rolled forward into the hole.

Celebration ensued on the tee box, with golfers on the seventh and ninth holes close enough to hear the commotion.

Then it was Clark’s turn. He hit his gap wedge and watched as the same thing happened: the ball landed short of the hole, released and rolled in the cup.

Now it was pure pandemonium on the tee box.

It wasn’t long before all 80 players in the event heard about the feat.

“It has certainly never happened at Maumelle Country Club,” said Maumelle’s PGA Head Professional Cary Maddox.

No word on how big the bar tab was for Hagewood and Clark.

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