After 42 years of living and nearly 30 years of golfing, I finally obtained that elusive hole-in-one. I cannot begin to count the number of times that pesky ball ran out-of-gas, lipped-out or burned the edge of the cup, but it finally happened. The saddest part? Despite the hole being fully visible from the tee box, I never saw the ball drop! That day, I lasered the pin to 192 and selected 4-iron, hoping to run the ball up to the hole with a moderate breeze in the face. I struck the ball pretty well and watched as it appeared to land about 5 yards short of hole high (pin was back). The ball took a normal looking bounce and disappeared out of sight of which I believed it to have run off the back. After everyone teed off, I dutifully threw my bag on my back and proceeded to head for the back of the green. Being the only member of our 4-some playing a yellow ball, I quickly scanned the back of the green hoping for a good lie to attempt to get up-and-down from. Of course, that bright yellow orb was nowhere to be found. Utilizing somewhat more colorful language, I exclaimed "where's my ball?!!". Someone suggested I checked the hole of which I remarked that it was definitely not there as I was convinced it ran off the back of the green. That same someone walked over to the hole and blankly said to me "go check the hole". As I scoffed at his comment, I reluctantly walked to the hole. At first glance, I did not see anything and almost turned around as the ball had settled at the back of the cup. But as I took one more step forward, that brilliant yellow glow suddenly came into view! To describe my reaction, please refer back to the beginning of my post where I recounted too many close-call hole-in-ones to count. Although a feeling of joy had sparked in my soul, I could not muster anything other than a sly smile and a sigh of relief! My painful journey had come to a close and I finally joined a club I thought perhaps was too exclusive for me to join!