There’s no finer and more memorable shot in golf than the hole-in-one. From now through the Ryder Cup, we’ll highlight some of the weirdest, greatest, wildest and most unbelievable aces in history, for pros and amateurs alike. These are the Ace Chronicles, and if you have a notable ace of your own to contribute, email us and let us know. Today: The agony of the near-miss.
According to the National Hole-in-One Registry — a valued institution on par (golf term) with the National Archives — the odds of making a hole-in-one are one in 12,500. Most recreational golfers who manage to pull off the feat only get one or two in a lifetime of playing. So the moment when you think you’ve picked the right club and the right stroke for the right hole, at last, is one of the finest in golf … and the moment you realize you didn’t is one of the worst.
Via Reddit, here’s the story of a player who did everything right, all the way into the cup. We don’t know the identity of the player or the location of the hole, but we do know that it was a 160-yard par 3. The ball, as our Redditor writes, “clattered the pin, surely went in the hole, then jumped out and rolled 6 feet to the right.”
As you can see from the photo above, that ball hit hard — apparently it dropped from low earth orbit — before kicking away. Here’s how far a putt our poor unlucky soul had for birdie:
Did he make it? The Redditor added, “Now when I’m 80 and my grandkids ask me if I’ve ever had a hole in one, I’ll finally be able to say ‘No … but damn, did I have a pretty sweet birdie once.'”
Oh, and our player did repair the damage done to the hole. That was a nice gesture after he surely wanted to stomp that hole into mud.
The Ace Chronicles:
•
Got a great hole-in-one story of your own? Let us know by email here. More wild ace stories to come!
