IF YOU'RE A GOLF COURSE AFICIONADO, this is going to be a great weekend for watching golf on television. First, the Barclays is at Ridgewood Country Club in New Jersey. The course may not be well known nationally, but in the metropolitan New York area, this A.W. Tillinghast design is a must play.
But the course that I'm most interested in watching is Chambers Bay, host of the U.S. Amateur. Normally, the Amateur is a test to see whether a course is suitable for the U.S. Open, but since Chambers Bay is already slated to hold the 2015 U.S. Open, this week's is a dress rehearsal, to help the USGA figure out how they want to set up the course and whether it needs any tweaks over the next five years.
From spectators to architects to officials, there will be plenty of interested Chambers Bay observers—both on site and from afar—but none will be more interested than Terry Olson and Greg Brown. The pair formed the key component of a remarkable feat, which happened to take place on the day I played Chambers Bay, August, 13, 2008.
My group was walking down the fairway on the 2nd hole when we heard a cheer from across the course. Our reaction was immediate: hole-in-one. Just a minute later, we heard another cheer, this one louder and more sustained than the first. We wondered whether there had been another hole-in-one somewhere, and when we finished our round, we were told that there had been back-to-back aces on the 15th hole (pictured above).
I noted the feat in my profile of the course, and thought no more of it. Nearly two years later, I received an e-mail from Olson, who had come across the article. Remarkably, he said that mine was the only mention of this rare achievement (the estimated odds are 17 million to one) that he had ever seen, and provided the details:
The shots came during a two-day, 72-hole orgy for Terry, then the publisher of Golfweek (on the left, he currently sells for PGA Magazine) and Greg, who is VP of sales for Adams Golf. (The other two members of the foursome were Perry Ponti and Jason Redditt.)
From 172 yards, Terry went first, using a 9-iron from the elevated tee. Greg then used an 8-iron. When Greg's shot went in, the caddies (Chambers Bay is walking only) were doing cartwheels on the tee box. It was the first ace for each player, and Terry calls it "the best golf experience of my life for sure."
I'm sure the winner of the Amateur will consider his victory the best golf experience of his life, and I wanted to take the opportunity to recognize a unique feat at a unique golf course.
Comments