Slam Dunk Ace
By David Laird On August 15, 2016
I stood on the 129 yard par 3 17th tee box after a great up and down par on the long par 4 16th a few minutes earlier. I looked at my Garmin Approach S1 watch for a yardage (128 yards) and said to myself that's a 52 degree wedge all day long. I placed the tee in the ground and set my Titleist Pro v1 ball on it, stood behind it and took a few practice swings with my Titleist Vokey Design wedge then I addressed the ball to play the shot. I took a short 3/4 swing and caught the ball and turf as sweet as a nut and the ball took off, as soon as I hit it and followed through I knew it was good and then I heard it, the sound of the ball hitting the pin. Both my playing partner and myself looked at each other and said "is that in?", we both couldn't see ball on the green so weren't totally sure as the sun was straight in our eyes making it hard to pick out anything on the green. We decided that it was in so we had a high 5 moment on the tee. Partner then played his shot onto middle of the green, he was disappointed with only hitting the green after seeing what we believed was an 'ace'. As we walked down to the green we talked about how we have never had one or even witnessed one. I got to the side of the green and still could not see my ball, Andrew my playing partner said shall I check and I said no let me go. I walked towards the hole and looked in and there it was looking at me, my first ever hole in one. It had slam dunked straight into the hole. I fell to my knees and even welled up slighly shedding a tear or two... It was the most incredible feeling that I have ever experienced on the golf course. Hardest shot I had to hit all day was my tee shot at the 18th, thankfully I caught a great 3 wood which led to a closing par to sign for a 2 over 70. I also earlier in the round holed out from 89 yards with a 3/4 56 degree Titleist Vokey Design wedge for an eagle 2 at the 4th. 13/08/2016 is a date I will never forget!