It was a sunny and beautiful 75 degree day with no wind. I was suppose to go on a date but it got cancelled so I grabbed the clubs and hopped in the car on my way for the course. The sun was starting to set and it was about 6:30PM when I started the front 9. I bogeyed hole 1, double bogeyed hole 2 and bogeyed hole 3 and just figured it was going to be another beautiful day of bogey golf. (which is a little disappointing for me but am okay with just because I love the game) I walked up to the Par 3, 195 yard hole and thought back to the previous day when I had struck a 5-iron well and carried it to the back of the green. I was focusing on my iron game this particular night and had been striking them well so I made the decision to club down and hit the 6-iron. I grabbed my club and walked up onto the tee box and took a picture with my phone and sent it to my buddy telling him how beautiful of a day it was on the course and that I wished he was here. The pin location was right at the front left of the green, with a bunker about 10 yards just to the left. On this hole I'm usually just hoping to hit the green so I aimed dead center to the green. I placed the ball on the tee, went through my routine and took my swing. Right off the club, I knew that I had made solid contact right in the sweet spot and looked up to see where it was heading. I watched it fly straight at the center of the green, nice and high but with a subtle 5 yard draw. I started saying out loud, "get left, get left." As I kept glancing at the ball flight, then at the pin, then back at the ball and again at the pin, I knew that it was going to end up hopefully within tap-in birdie range. The front 10 yards of the green was in the shade and then it went into the sun. I saw my ball land in the shade and bounce about 3-4 feet in the air and kicked left (I'm assuming because the ball had some side spin from my draw). I saw it land in sunny part of the green about 2 feet to the right of the pin but from 195 yards out, I couldn't tell how short it was yet exactly. After it made the first bounce, I watched it intently as I saw it roll left and then it disappeared. I said to myself, "no way, did that just go in?!" I ran off of the tee box and held my hand above my forehead to block out the sun to try and see if maybe the ball had rolled directly behind the cup and was hiding in the shadow of the flag or the flag stick but I saw nothing. Previously this summer I had asked my dad, "so what happens then if you're golfing alone and you get a hole-in-one?" He told me that someone has to verify it and attest to it as a witness. This particular day was ladies night on the front 9 and league night on the back 9. I threw my hands up in the air and couldn't stop smiling, as I was now 95% confident that it had indeed went in. I instantly felt the biggest rush of adrenaline that I had ever experienced and my hands began to shake uncontrollably. I heard some ladies on the next green over which was about 30 yards to my right and about half the distance to the green. I started yelling to try and get their attention but they were quite a bit older and probably couldn't hear me so I yelled even louder, threw my hands up in the air and started waving. I heard one of them say, "what is that boy yelling about?" Then they all looked over and I yelled to them, "I think I just got a hole-in-one, will you guys come check?!" I heard another one of them say, "Really?! Uhh yeah, sure!" All four of them hopped into their carts and drove over to the green. I jogged to my cart, put my 6-iron back in the bag and called my dad who was at work. He picked up and I said, "DAD! I think I just got a hole-in-one". He was like, "wait, what?" I said, "I just got a hole-in-one, I just got my first hole-in-one but I got to go I'll call you soon!". He was like, "uhh, umm okay?" I think he didn't quite process exactly what I just said. I sped up to the green in my cart and as I pulled up, the ladies were all walking up to the green. They all looked in the hole and as I got out of my cart, they began to clap. I shared with them the shot and what it did in the air, how it landed and
what I saw it do. They all smiled and I asked them if they would verify it for me and they were elated to be part of this perfect shot. They wanted to call the clubhouse and I just so happened to have the number on my phone. I pulled it out of my pocket and went to dial it but because I was shaking so bad I couldn't even make the call. Eventually we got the clubhouse on the phone, they verified the shot and then went on to finish their round. I went to the next hole and was still shaking. I crushed my drive but pushed it right. I drove up to my ball to find it on an incline of grass, just 2 inches from a tree trunk. I couldn't believe the misfortune of my lie but grabbed my PW and assumed it was about 135 yards out. I made my swing through the trees and over the 4 foot deep bunker that guarded the front right of the green. It landed about 8 feet away from the pin and I missed my birdie by 2 inches. After starting the first 3 holes at +4, I went on to finish the front 9 with a score of 39; the best 9 hole round i've ever shot. Afterwards, I looked up what the odds are of an average golfer scoring a hole-in-one on a 200 yard, par 3, and golf digest proclaimed them to be 1 out of 150,000. When you talk to people about the odds of crazy things happening, a lot of times you will hear, "Yeah, the odds of that happening are like 1 in a million", but on this beautiful, sunny day, the odds may not have been 1 in a million but they sure were 1 in a 150,000. It is a feeling that I wish everyone who loves the game of golf could feel because it is literally indescribable and I am so grateful and blessed to have been given this moment. Every time I close my eyes and relive the moment, it's like watching a video and I will never forget it.