As a long time golfer of about 30 years I have worked hard on my game from when my buddies and I would walk 9 holes at the new Blue Ash GC here in Cincinnati back in the early 80's to pounding buckets of balls on the range while traveling a 3 state territory in the late 90's and early 2000's. Until this year the elusive hole in one has only been a "not yet" on my golf bucket list.

After a long weekend of camping with family and friends the last thing I really wanted to do was play in my Monday night golf league with 23 other guys. My golf partner and I had experience a rough start in our league and really had no chance of returning to the top of our league this year. Early August, the 1st to be exact, is not the easier time to find a sub in our league so I decided to play then hopefully go home and get some sleep.

My opponent wins the 1st three holes of our match and I see a beating starting to unfold as he is -1 through 3 holes. The 4th hole of Reeves GC looks directly into a setting August sun so if the ball doesn't go toward the green it can make it difficult to find. The tee box was showing a bit of late season wear and as I approached the tee I said to my golf partner, "what do I have to do to win a hole tonight?" He tried to prop me up and replies, "keep on plugging you'll get your points".

I hit my pitching wedge since the tees were up at the 125 yard area, one of the shorter par 3's at Reeves but it has a bunker in front, large pine tree short and right of the green and you really can't see the green surface from the tee. As soon as I hit the shot I knew it was good and then the sun came into play, blinding me from judging just how good the shot was. I heard something hit the pin, but no one in the 4-some saw the ball come down due to the sun in our eyes.

As we pull up to the green, I grab my putter and the guy on the hole behind us who isn't in our league yells out, "Hey that ball that hit the pin, I think it went in." So my heart starts to race, my opponent is near the hole and yells, "Yeah its in the hole". I am in shock at this point and so tired from a long weekend I'm not sure how to react. I pull the ball out of the hole and let out a big holler as the reality of a hole-in-one sets in.

The funny part of the story is my opponent actually birdies this hole, going to -2 after 4 holes so I had to ACE a hole this night in order to win a hole. I was in such shock I actually teed off on the next hole with the ProV1x I had aced the previous hole with, but fortunately put my tee ball down the right side.

My 85 year old father and 3-time hole-in-one shooter was extremely proud of my accomplishment as he did not have his 1st ace until the age of 55. Since this shared bond of golf and a hole in one my father has passed away and now plays his soft fade on the plush fairways in heaven and I will miss his weekly questions about my golf game or how my golf league is going.