Broke my age ... by eleven shots!
By Ron B On 4 August 2018
This is not a hole-in-one story - but is probably more rare (and I'm unlikely to ever do it again!)
I'm 78 and a low single-digit recreational golfer, so shooting my age or better has become pretty common (esp. with an appropriate choice of tees!). I was on a road trip into British Columbia (from California) with my adult son and playing a lot of golf on those spectacular mountain courses. On one of my favorites, Redstone Resort - a Les Furber design carved out of a forest on the side of a mountain, we were playing the 'member' white tees. Although relatively short, it has its challenges with huge elevation changes, narrow doglegs through the forest, blind tee shots, undulating fast greens, forced carries over water hazards ... you get the idea. I had been playing pretty well on this trip - and felt I would again on this spectacular course and day. But I never expected six birdies (two of them long down-hill fast breaking putts that I was just hoping I would have a chance to make the very likely long uphill putt after missing the first!).
The finishing hole is a steeply downhill par four dogleg through the forest with a reachable pond at the end of the dogleg. The second shot is a short to mid-iron (assuming a great tee shot) through a gap in the trees and across a 50 yard wide hazard and creek that fronts the green. It is a pretty intimidating hole. I was thrilled with my par to close with a 67 - my personal best score.
My 'magic number' - the difference between my age and low score - is now eleven. I'm sure I'll never do that again.