This game just isn't fair......

Let me set the stage.....

2 years ago, my buddy Tony had been playing golf for 9 months.  We've insisted that he play correctly from day one.  No mulligans, play it as it lies, stroke and distance, etc..... in other words, golf. He also posts all scores.  At the time his index was an honest 34.  We're standing on the tee box of a 145 yard par 3.  Tony tees it up in the middle of the box, though the tee markers are at the front of the box.  I stop him and tell him that the teeing area only extends 2 club lengths behind the markers.  He nods, picks up, moves forward 15 feet, re-tees, and knocks it in the jar!  In 40 years of playing golf, it was the first ace I'd ever seen. The other guy we were playing with and I bought Tony the commemorative plaque and then dragged him out to the nearest bar to celebrate.......on him!

Fast forward to yesterday......

Tony has now been playing just short of 3 years and carries a 22.8 index.  Of the rest of our group, I'm the high handicapper at 5.5, one guy plays off of 3.8, and the other is +0.6.  Same course, different hole...... 160 yards and the 3 of us are all within 25 feet of the pin and  feeling pretty good about ourselves.  That's when 'ole knucklehead drags his sorry, 23 hcp ass up to the tee box and proceeds to short hop a 5 iron into the hole like a scared rabbit headed home!

2 aces within 3 years of picking up a club for the first time, when his goal every round is to break 100.....something that doesn't happen all that often either.  The other 3 of us have played the game for a combined total of over 90 years.  Tony's handicap is about 3 times our combined handicaps, and only the + guy has one solitary ace 10 years ago.  Good grief......

The SOB gets to buy his own plaque this time!

That's what makes this game so great.  It is so very humbling!

Hahahah great story!

Being 35 yrs old... And playing off and on since I was 7 yrs old... I have yet to hit an ace.  And I've only witnessed two aces - one was last year the foursome in front of us - we were backed up on a par 3 and the guy aced it.  And then in a men's league tournament a few months back, my opponent hit an ace.

The closest I've come to an ace was nearly 20 yrs ago in high school on a short par 3 uphill - my ball came to rest within a quarter (coin length) of the hole.  Pretty much sums up my life.  Always short, and never in.

You're right not fair. I have been playing for 20 years, been scratch for 5-6 of those, I have no aces. Had a lady come in the pro shop the other day. She is a 30+ handicap, lowest score ever 105. She had her third hole in one.

My dad was a scratch player for 20 years before he got his first ace. Then he got 2 more within 6 months.

And I am still waiting...

Yup... not fair. The thing with ace's is that it's almost all luck. I have one, just about two months ago after playing for 11 years.

Yep. He's a great guy, but good grief, he's gonna be hard to live with for a long time!

Making an ace is truly the silliest kind of dumb luck.  I've been fortunate enough to make 2, both in a 10 month stretch, and the last one 23 years ago.   The first one was a beauty, 5 feet past the hole and spun back like pulling a string (also happened to be the final round of the club championship in '89).  The second was a skulled 6I that kicked off a mound left of the green, hit the flagstick about 30 miles per hour and got sucked down like a vacuum cleaner.  When I pulled the Tour Balata ball out of the hole it had a smile on it 3/4 of an inch long.

I haven't seen more than a sniff of one since that second ace in May of 1990, yet my handicap has been consistently lower during the ensuing 23 years than it was when I made either one.  The odds are just against putting together the right direction and distance, then getting the right slope on the green for whatever rollout happens, too.

But I have to admit that even though I know that it's pure luck, it still feels pretty nice when it happens.

I've had two close calls, one hit the flag staff, the other hit infront of the pin and ended up about 5 feet past the pin, it waved hello on the way past. Besides that, never witnessed a hole and one. I've had holed out from the fairway before, so i might count that as a defacto hole in one, same score relative to par ;)

Great story DadinFLA!!  Golf definitely isn't fair!!   I am lucky enough to have 1........but that's not enough!  I desperately seek what I call a "validation ace" .   LOL.... If and when i get that, I'll think of something new to call my 3rd!!  No matter how many a person has, they always want '1 More!'

I just saw a poor guys ball shred the hole, disappear in the hole and then climb back out and sit inches away.  He was heartbroken as he has yet to have a HIO.  He was so shaken that another guy in the group who had put his ball about 9 inches away missed his birdie putt and made an invective birthing par..  Hard not to laugh at that point

Didn't see it personally, but a father and son were playing West Sayville in New York and the kid got an Ace on the Par 3 8th hole. It is a tough hole given you drive over a lake (and we all know what happens to balls flying over water, there is an instant attraction there). Anyway we were at the 19th hole when the father and son came in. You should have seen the look on the father's face, he could not have been more proud of his son. Golf is a great game.

Speaking of not fair......LOL

My dad and I never played golf when I was growing up.   It wasn't until I had graduated from college and moved away that we both started playing.    I immediately was the best golfer the the family............I was a single digit HC pretty quick when he was still lucky to break 100.

When it comes to ACES....my dad 1-upped me.  My dad got his ace several years before me.  He hit driver on a 210yd par3 and holed it.....     Golf isn't fair!!  LOL

A guy in my foursome hit a hole in one to win a car at a benefit golf tournament we were playing in.

That was cool to see.

Great story, gives the worst of us (me) hope!

If only life were 'fair'. I'd surely be decades younger, much more attractive to the girls, at least one lottery win, single digit H'cap, able to leap tall buildings in a single bound...get the idea?  But hey, enjoy the day cause tomorrow might not arrive for me.  And of the above list only 3 can i influence.