Photo from Golfweek
Making a hole-in-one is hard.
There are so many factors that come into play: the club you pick, the wind direction, the placement of the hole and whether you did your daily affirmations before teeing off.
Quite a few Golf Digest writers (me included) have never aced a hole, so the main response to Steve Marks’ landmark September day isn’t shock and awe … but pure jealousy.
The 68-year-old Illinois legend recorded the first hole-in-one of his 61-year golf career at Idlewild Country Club in Flossmoor, Ill., on the par-3 12th. Hybrid, solid contact, bottom of the hole. That by itself is a hell of a day. Go to the bar and buy some rounds, Steve.
However, things got even better just three holes later when he somehow jarred another one.
“It bounced, maybe on the collar,” Marks told Golfweek. “Went straight up in the air, and boom. Slam dunk … It’s just incredible. The more I think about it, and the more people I talk to, the more incredible it is.”
Two aces in the same round.
That’s only been done three times in the PGA Tour’s history and the National Hole-in-One registry puts the odds of that occurring at 67 million to 1, which is a nice way of saying "fat chance."
Marks went on to shoot an 85 that day, but the score doesn’t really matter. He could’ve shot a 100 with two aces and still had the round of his life.
Marks isn’t the only one in his family who has recorded an ace this year, as his wife Shelly made one back in May at the same course. Out of the club’s five holes-in-one this year, three have come from the Marks family. Idlewild royalty.
On the final par 3 of his pocket-aces day, Marks admitted that he found himself hitting in front of a small crowd to see if he could hit a third. He didn’t.
No one’s that lucky. Yet.
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