The odds of making a hole-in-one for an amateur golfer are pretty low, something like 13,000-to-1, according to estimates.
A pair of northern Virginia golfers defied the odds this weekend, not only seeing one ace in their group but two aces from the same group on the same hole.
Mike Ray and Dr. Kevin Peltier were playing the par-3 sixth hole on the Jack Nicklaus-designed Creighton Farms Golf Club in Aldie, Virginia, taking on the 165-yard shot with water guarding the miss on the right and a bunker guarding the front.
First, Ray made a hole-in-one with an 8-iron. Then Dr. Peltier went second with a 7-iron and also drained it!
If these aces were treated as individual events, then the odds of this happening are 169 million-to-1. However, the National Hole-in-One Association, which is a real organization that looks after such things, says their estimated odds for two golfers in the same foursome to make an ace on the same hole is 26 million-to-1. The odds would be better for professional golfers, closer to 15 million-to-1.
No matter how you slice it, the odds of something like this happening are astonishing. Add in that Creighton Farms is a difficult golf course -- trust me, I'm saying this from experience -- and it makes the feat all the more remarkable.
It's been a great year already for wild hole-in-one accomplishments. In the second round of the 2024 US Senior Open, Frank Bensel Jr. made back-to-back holes-in-one in the second round of the tournament at Newport Country Club in Rhode Island.
If you're like me and have never made a hole-in-one, news like this might make you feel bad. But it should make you feel good. Crazy things can happen on the golf course, and sometimes you're on the right end of something happening that's almost impossible.
