COMMUNITY

I had a stretch of Golf in the spring of 1987 where over the course of 3 weeks I had Eagles on a Par 3, Par 4 and two par 5's. I played on the Normandale College team that year and had a hole in 1 and an eagle on a par 5 during Collegiate events. I won Medalist Honors and led my team mates to the Team title of the Wilmar Invitational where the eagle on the par 5 turned my score and attitude around. It was extremely windy and I was 5 over par after 3 holes but finished the round at 6 over 78. Conditions were so brutal only 2 others shot 79. There were several scratch players that shot mid 80's that day. My Ace was during a Match play event, I won the hole but just barely. After I holed my shot my opponent put his shot 3 inches from the hole!! The par 4 and other par 5 eagle came during practice rounds. I finished the year with 6 total Eagles and haven't had a total of 6 in the 24 years since. Back surgery has taken a lot of distance from me so I'm rarely putting for eagle anymore.

Interesting side note my 8 iron was involved in most of them.
*Hole in one used 8 iron from 142 yards into wind elevated tee to very low green.
*Holed out second shot on par 4, 150 yards out 8 iron.
*Eagle on par 5, driver-8 iron OVER green, drained putt from back fringe to front green pin placement.(I said it was EXTREMELY windy and it was at my back, I was 210 yards out and thought I was laying up!)
*Eagle on a short par 5 driver-8 iron to 2 feet away, ball actually lipped out just missing a Double Eagle.

All were witnesed.

Nice topic DH. Golf is a blurr to me for the most part , but there is a few memorable shots I can recall. No hole in ones....yet. But like yourself, back in 87' I had 2 hole outs from the fairway within a 3 week span for eagles, 1st one was from about 160 yards and the 2nd was from around 110 yards. What a feeling that is. Both on par 4's. I've had a few fairway-wood shots on some par 5's to within 5 feet for eagle as well. My best round is a 68 a few years back and I've never shot in the 60's since. I've broken par about 6-8 times but only 70 once. I've had 4 birdies in a row once as well. Thats all I can recall. I know one of the most memorable moments that I can recall while playing golf with someone else is, same year, back in 87' I was golfing with a guy out in Lander, Wyoming. It was September or October. Back then when they start to Winterize the golf course, instead of cutting cups daily, what they do is cut 2 holes in the green, when your done playing the hole, you take the pin and stick it in the other cup. We were playing a par 3, I hit, knock it in the center of the green, my partner hits, balls flying to the rightside of the green, the pin is on the leftside, all of a sudden, his ball disappears, it went into the wrong hole. I told him that was going to be a tough putt. He said he was going to take that as a hole in one....I guess thats a case of being in the Wrong place at the wrong time~

My best was an eagle (the one and only) it was a short par 4. My drive ended up a foot off the green and lucky me the pin was a foot on the green. So i had a 2 foot putt for eagle and knock it home. I did have 2 wittness

I got two of them, 1st Hole # 14 at International Links in Miami, a 4 wood, yes I said a 4 wood from 225 yds. I did not see the ball where it went but the guys in my group said that it went in the hole for an Eagle, of course on the next hole the ball found the water. My 2nd was at Granada Golf Course in Coral Gables, Florida, my Dad was there to witness my 2nd Hole in one on the 7th hole 133 yds with a pitching wedge, to make a long story short a few days before he passed away he was talking about that to a few people he knew that played golf.

proud Papa and a great moment, Pete

i remember a round from High school like yesterday.
i went out for golf in high school because it was almost free and i had a chance to learn and play a game that as a kid i never had the oportunity to play.
anyway in my senior year we had a great team.. most matches were 9 holes and often we would play against more than one other school.. this was a conferance invite and there were 3 very good golfers on our team always in the 30s and often around par.. and then 4 of us seniors that would bounce back and fourth from week to week playing Varsity and JV.. our jv squad was always stacked with low 40's shooters. (small school maybe 525 kids.. anyway.. coach calls me in the morning of the match when i get to school and bumped one of my buddies and said im in... bus leaves in an hour.. 18 holes , hard course i never played and it was a horrible day outside.. i was always a consistant low 40's player but never crossed into the 30's.. anyway it was brutal. sideways rain 40mph winds and just a swamp from days of rain..
After Grinding all day i came in with an 82 . and was pleased i had out scored all the other 5th men in my 4 some..
we turned in our cards and my coach just smiled.
we all retreated to the warm heated Bus and the team was all bumbed because they didnt shoot well.. anway coach returns for the ride . turns out we won the the 4 school invite and held up the trophy!
then he said we also have this trophy for the low round of the day! sweet as he walks past all the heavy hitter juniors sitting in front of the short bus( seniors in the back of course) there were only 2 of us lol.. and he hands me it along with a gold medal! turns out a round or two from each team was in the 100's and rounds in the 90's was common. all our guys were in the mid to high 80's and i took the honor by 3 strokes over the next competitor.. thats it.. the highlight from my high school days.. all 3 of our junior team members went to state but we lost in sectionals so we didnt go as a team.. the thing that sticks out about the day was listening to the 3 players i was matched with cry all day! cry and cry and cry not wanting to be there.. i just plunked along making a par once in a wile and a bunch of bogies a few long putts as the ball just would break on the wet greens. other memberable moments include things like a hole in one on a par 4 playing with my son. draining an 8 iron or a 6 iron for eagle on the hardest par 4 on my home course where my average score on that hole even now is a 6 .. lol.. i remember bouncing a ball on the 18th off the clubhouse (on the other side of the road) with people outside on the deck howling as it bounced in the parking lot back across the road onto the green and to within a few inches... good times for sure.. also remember taking a 14 on the first hole in a monday night league as i pulled 4 in a row left and OB off the tee . THAT WAS SOMETHING ill never live down.. 30 or so guys waiting to tee off..

Most of the time I shoot a few strokes better than bogey golf. One day last summer my boss called to see if i wanted to play. So we went and no one was at the course yet and we went to hitting. Started with a bogey then parred 2 3 4 5 6 birdied 7 after a close approach and 8 with a long putt. I finished the 9 with a par for my first 9 holes under par. Went to the back 9 and parred 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 and 17. Got to 18 and hit a tree while trying to drive the green then hit a limb with my approach. I then chipped to the green and had a 2 put bogey for my first even par round. We played in 2 hours and 30 minutes. Dont know how I played so consistant with 16 straight holes of par or better but everything just happened to go my way that day.

Never had a hole in one or eagle even though I know I'm going to get at least 1 of those by year's end. Not good enough to contend in tourneys yet, so that leaves low score. My 87 at South Suburban at July was the only time I ever felt like a scratch golfer. I was -1 after 2 holes and even after 3, I only missed 3 fairways and had 30 putts if I recall correctly. Only round where I've had 2 birdies in the same round as well. Felt like I still left a few shots out there and 82 might have been a possibility. I can't wait to start doing that consistently.

ONe that just stands out in my mind was last year at my local muni. Birdied the first hole, then had 15 PARS IN A ROW! Bogey on 17, par 18 for an even par 69. Great topic. I will be checking back later to read some great stories!

I've had lots of great shots and rounds over the years, but here are two memories that stand out.

1: I had my first hole-in-one in February last year, and I actually called the shot. Well, I didn't say I was going to actually HOLE it, but here's how it went: 17th hole at Hackberry Creek Country Club, 192 yards. It was about 40 degrees outside, with wind blowing hard from right to left. Now I play a cut 99% of the time when I play golf, and I enjoy a stiff right-to-left wind like that because I can hit a hard cut and the wind basically holds the ball dead straight. So I told my buddy Brad "I like this wind, I'm going to knock this real close." He just shrugged and said "Okay," and I hit the most beautiful 3-iron (it was cold so I had to club up) I've ever struck in my life. I hit that cut and the wind held it straight...the ball never left the flag. It went in the hole on the first hop!

2: I was playing in an interclub match down at Brookhaven Country Club last year. Now Brookhaven is an old-school track lined with trees on every hole. So my opponent and I reach our 15th hole, and I'm 2 up on the match. Now this hole was a dogleg right, about 410 yards or so, but there's a big dropoff down to a pond 3/4 of the way down the fairway so you have to lay up. So I hit hybrid off the tee and just totally fanned it, now I'm in the trees on the right side. My opponent hit a great drive right down the pipe.

So I've got 200 yards to the green, and fortunately the trees around me aren't TOO high, and not dense either. So I figured hey, I'm 2 up, even if he wins this hole I'm still in control of the match...so let's go for it. I couldn't see the green, had to walk out to the fairway to get an idea. I hit hybrid again, hit it well...ran out to the fairway and saw the ball finish on the green, 15 feet from the cup! My opponent was a little rattled by that and chunked his approach...I ended up winning the hole anyway. So now I'm 3 up with 3 to play. Next hole is a par 3, uphill and about 170 yards. I'm still pretty excited about pulling off that shot on the last hole, so I absolutely nuked a 7-iron and it never left the flag, ended up 10 feet long, right in line with the pin. Opponent went long left and couldn't get up and down, and I won that hole easily to win the match 4 and 2. That was a lot of fun, capitalizing on opportunities and slamming the door shut on the match.

Thanks Billy, he had that ball until the end of his life

Hackberry has to be one of the best names for a course, ever!!! LOL

Hands down, when my son and I both won closest to the pin at a St Jude Charity scramble.

One of the last times out in the fall I hit probably my best shot of the year. I found a fairway bunker off the tee on a par 5. I had about 250 left to a green guarded by bunkers on the right and marsh on the left. I pull the 3 wood and tell my brother i'm going for it he rolls his eyes at me like "yeah right". I then blast it to within 8 feet. I made the slightly downhill putt for an eagle. After that eagle I made 3 more birdies all in a row. Then my eagle high wore off and I shot a double bogey 6. It was a fun ride while it lasted though.

I actually had two great shots a couple days ago playing at the ocean club in the Bahamas. On the back nine on a par five my tee shot went in a fairway bunker, i was left with a nice lie, not buried and sitting on an upward slope. Pulled out the range finder and i was 272 to the guys who were putting on the green. Knowing that i couldn't hit them i pull out a 3 wood and hit this ball so pure my friend said not a speck of sand came out. Well the ball took off and kept going and in shock just watching didn't yell fore the ball drops on the green right past the foursome in front of me. i drive up immediately to apologize feeling like a complete asshole. Lucky they were just as excited as i was, i ended up being ten feet from the hole and then of course i choked on my eagle put at least i got the bird.

Then two holes later short par 4 295 to the pin with a slight right to left wind i hit my drive to 8feet on the green while the same group watches from the next tee box. yes again i choked on the eagle put. still pretty cool though