Last week, my cell phone rings and I answer it. The voice on the other line, my friend Matt, declares “I got a hole-in-one!” Naturally, I shared his excitement–short of screaming like a school girl. Trying to squash my jealousy for the moment, I listened to the story. And, praised this triumph. As the story goes…Matt was playing on a company outing at the exclusive Caves Valley Golf Club. His CEO was in his foursome–who was impressed with the accomplishment and, probably, didn’t hurt Matt’s career advancement. There were caddies involved. He walks up to the 17th (actually the 8th hole, but they started on the back nine) and it was playing 148 yards. He was between an 8 and a 9 iron. The caddy suggested that he drop down to the 8 iron based on the way he was shooting. The rest is history.
Stuff Every Man Should Know…about a Hole-in-One.
Golf Digest calculates the odds of an average player acing a hole at 12,000 to 1. That’s some pretty serious odds. There’s no true etiquette for how to celebrate except that it is customary to buy a round of drinks for the players in your foursome. Some country clubs will actually supply you with a plaque as a way to mark the event. (Matt’s plaque is in production right now.)
On a side note, when he finished the story, I had to ask…”So, how’d you do on the round?” His answer, “It was a tough course. And, despite the hole-in-one, I didn’t break 100.” Poor guy. Almost kills the story. ALMOST. Congrats to Matt!
Sit back, relax, and try to figure out how many rounds you will need to play before you hit a hole-in-one! (Probably in the area of 3,000 rounds!)
brc
