Sister aces are rare, but not unprecedented

What happened Tuesday for sisters and University of Central Oklahoma teammates Erica and Lindsey Bensch on a golf course in Edmond, Okla., was a great example of what occurs nowadays in the world of golf records and rarities.

As unique and crazy and unbelievable as it was for the two to ace a hole during the same round of golf at KickingBird Golf Club, our authoritative records show it had been done before, and with a little more pizazz. The Bensch's are the third set of sisters Golf Digest has recorded acing a hole in the same round. In 2006, a pair of identical twin sisters made back-to-back holes-in-one in California. And in 2005, another pair of sisters in California made back-to-back aces. And in another family twist, also in 2005, a pair of female cousins each made an ace on the same hole, in the same round, back-to-back in the same group.

We figure the odds of two average players making a hole-in-one in the same round are 17 million to 1. The Bensch's are presumably better than average as college players, which would improve the odds, but as sisters, would that figure to be a rarer event than if it had been two unrelated players? We'll figure that everything equals out and stick with the 17 million to 1; that is still strong odds against it happening. (Read David Owen's essay on holes-in-one).

Where the Bensch sisters can claim their feat was a little more special is that, although they didn't go back to back, they had their great day on a regulation-length course while the two sets of California aces took place on executive-length layouts. So Erica and Lindsey will enter our record books as not the first sisters to make aces in the same round but will have their own distinction to a remarkable achievement.

-- Cliff Schrock, Editor, Golf Digest Resource Center