It was one of the most unbelievable moments in my life. On June 23rd, in one round at Ozark National, a Coore/Crenshaw course at Big Cedar Lodge, I was lucky enough to record not only my first hole in one…but four holes later…my second hole in one.
The first was on hole #8 at 138 yards. Coming off the par 5 seventh, I was feeling confident and striking the ball well. I couldn't have hit my 8 iron (T300) cleaner. We all watched it arch towards the green and then two hop into the cup. I was overwhelmed by disbelief, joy, excitement, and a burst of adrenaline and nerves as I hugged and high-fived the guys. I had always dreamed of the day where I could pull my ball out of the cup after a tee shot.
As I was starting to come off this high and settle into the feeling of a once in a lifetime occurrence...we approached the next par 3, #12 at 161 yards. The 12th at Ozark National is a sweeping, beautiful and brute of a par 3.
The experience on 12 was a bit different since we could not see the hole from the tee box. After hitting what I thought would be a perfect 7 iron (T300) to the front center of the green, I was disappointed to pull up to an empty green. The thought shyly occurred to me, ‘no way could it have happened again.’ While I grabbed a few clubs expecting to find it off the green, my boyfriend, Chris, had made his way ahead of me across the green (sadly he was in the collection area I thought to have been). I’ll never forget the look on Chris’ face as he walked past the hole to give a quick glance…and as he looked down…there was my Titleist 44 staring back at him. All the feelings I had experienced on 8 hit me again and stronger than ever – I couldn’t believe it.
I had only just started playing custom ProV1xs with 44 hoping it would bring me luck, my birthday is April 4th. If nothing else, it would differentiate my ball from others. Both hole in one balls were from the same sleeve - I will likely be playing 44 ProV1xs the rest of my life.
While you certainly cannot choose if, when, or where these things happen, I could not have picked a more beautiful and special place than Ozark National at Big Cedar Lodge. Chris and I took our first trip together here, booked our second trip days after getting home from the first, and returned this week to celebrate Chris’ 40th birthday. As you might expect, I've been accused by him and others of ‘stealing his thunder’ during his birthday weekend – but I think him and the guys with us (his brother, Tim, and best friend, Austin) were even more excited than I was. Chris is a far better golfer than me, handicap of 1.5 and a 10 year member of Team Titleist. He’s helped me tremendously with my swing and convinced me I needed custom fitted Titleist clubs (he was not wrong). I would not love golf as much as I do if it was not for him - It is our favorite thing to do together.
We looked up the odds, for a tour pro to make two holes in one in a round settles out to be about 1 in 67 million. Given I am no tour pro, I still cannot wrap my mind around it…I’m so overwhelmed with gratitude to have had all of this happen on a very special weekend, in a very special place, with very special company. It is a moment and a story that I'll cherish for the rest of my life.