My Second Ace

It was Saturday, May 28, 2005, six days after my hole-in-one at Tierra Rejada. This time, I was with Greg and we had gone to visit his mother for the Memorial Day weekend up in Placerville. There’s a really nice golf course near there in Camino, California called Apple Mountain. It’s cut into the Sierra Mountains and the terrain is just beautiful. You couldn’t walk this course if they’d let you. As a twosome, we got paired up with a couple guys from the area. It was my first time playing the course and I was having a great time, and playing rather well. The course is known for swallowing up balls, but we each only lost one that day.

We got to #17, and one of the guys with us just happened to ask if either of us had ever gotten a hole-in-one. “As a matter of fact…” I told him about the one I just had last Sunday. The guys proceeded to tee off from 130 yards and all landed the green, pretty close to the pin.

Here's a shot of the hole. If you click on it, you can see their golf balls surrounding the flag stick.

We went up to my tees (a mere 85 yards) and that same guy tried to give me club advice… something like I should really be using my pitching wedge instead of the sand wedge that was in my mitt. Whatever. I stuck with my choice and teed off. We all watched as the ball landed softly a few feet in front and just right of the pin, and rolled with a purpose right into the hole. It was great to see it go in this time, and even though I saw it, I had difficulty believing it. After my first ace, I heard so many stories about people who play for years and never get one. Two in one week? Not possible. Greg threw up his hands, then we celebrated a little the way a couple might and the other two guys shook my hand.

And here's the one you couldn't see - mine in the cup! Look - the flag sticks are actually sticks!

I went on to play the worst hole of the day on #18, really struggling and finally taking a 9x. I guess I was off in la-la land. Even with that, I still shot a 93 that day, which for that course was 6 under my handicap. I’m lowering it pretty steadily, but these ace days are unusual. The only other times I’ve played this well overall is during tournaments. Something about competition makes me focus, I guess.

This place didn’t have much of a bar to speak of, so there was no drink buying policy. They gave me a plaque with a tee and a logo ball right then and there and submitted my name to the local papers (Greg’s mom sent me a copy).

One of my favorite things about getting an ace? Not having to putt! As I mentioned in a previous post, now I see the value of practicing those short par 3s at Sinaloa!

Next post.