Ace Alert!
This 236-yard missile at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson might be the purest ace you see all year
All hole-in-ones are special, but not every ace is created equal. There’s various factors at play. Distance, wind and pin position are big ones. Then there’s the course, the tees and, of course, lady luck—a big kick or a fortuitous ricochet count the same on the scorecard but are worth less in social currency.
None of this was of concern to Raul Pereda at the CJ Cup Byron Nelson on Thursday, however, where the Mexico-born tour pro holed one of the most immaculate aces you will ever see. Sound the air raid sirens, because this thing is a missile.
TPC Craig Ranch’s gargantuan 236-yard par-3 7th hole isn't a pitch n’ putt cupcake with a feeder pin hoovering up Joe Schmo's Kirklands. This is a full-grown beast and Pereda put it on a leash and told it to sit with one perfect swing. When all is said and done, Pereda's ace will go down as one of the shots of the year, rivaled partly by his other mind-boggling eagle, which he logged at the Mexico Open back in February.
What can we say? The man loves a hole-out. Pereda's hole-in-one was more than just for show, though. The shot moved the 940th-ranked player in the world to two-under and into a tie for 8th place. With just 10 events played, three cuts made and under $50,000 in career earnings on the PGA Tour, another couple of shots like this wouldn’t just move Pereda up the leaderboard, they would change his life.
