Last night was a family fun night shotgun event that was a precursor to the Junior Golf Banquet at the Golf Club at Lansdowne, Lansdowne, VA. My wife and I teed it up with our three kids, Lucas, Gabe, and Sarah (ages 11, 9, and 5) on the first hole. Traditionally I play the same teebox as my wife and boys to save time and keep the kids from losing interest.
Our son Lucas is an avid golfer and has been playing since he was three years old. The afternoon started a little slow for him, first hole was a triple bogey, followed by a bogey on the second hole, and another triple bogey on the third hole. Getting to the fourth hole tee takes you along side the far corner of the Greg Norman Course at Lansdowne and we stopped by a water cooler for a short break. We watched a single play the 5th hole on Norman and I talked to Lucas a little bit about making sure he was getting off his right side, that he seemed to be falling away from the ball which was resulting in weak pushes to the right.
At some point this season Lucas told me that he no longer wanted me to coach him on club selection, that he felt he was ready to start clubbing himself. The fourth hole was playing at about 98 yards and he selected his hybrid for the shot. He teed the ball low, took a few practice swings, and addressed the ball, playing it slightly back in his stance. He was facing directly into the setting sun, but could make out the red flag on the green. He took dead aim and put a really smooth swing on the ball. It was a slight draw that started just a tad right of the flagstick, but was drawing right towards the hole. I told him that he made a good swing and it looks pretty good. The ball landed about 25 feet short of the hole, pitched towards the hole about 10 feet adn rolled staight into the pin. I heard the clink and saw the ball disappear into the hole. I jumped up and threw my sand wedge and yelled, "A hole-in-one!!" My wife was in the cart with our daughter and didn't see the shot, but jumped out and told Lucas to run to the hole to see. They both took off racing towards the green, my five year old tripping in effort to keep up with them and Gabe a little behind me. As I picked up Sarah, Lucas was reaching into the hole to pull out his Titleist with a huge smile on his face. I ran back to the tee and grabbed my phone to snap this picture of Lucas standing next to the pind holding his ball and club, wearing a huge smile.
The moment was made so much more special because we all were there to witness it, although I think I was the only one to see it go into the hole.
That night at the Junior Golf Banquet, Lucas won an award for Best Driver in his age group and the Assistant Pro announced to the crowd that Lucas had just performed one of the most special feats in golf - a Hole-in-one - to which the crowd responded with loud cheers.