Trio of Summerfield golfers makes holes in one within a week

Summerfield Men’s Golf Club members Galen Goodale, Lyle Keenan and Dick Hiller recently recorded holes in one on the ninth hole - all within a week of each other.

Golf pro Rob Lindsey said he cannot recall three players getting holes in one within such a short time frame - Keenan on June 30, Hiller on July 3 and Goodale on July 6 - in all his years of playing and teaching.

"What is really amazing is that is was the same hole," Lindsey said. "The tees and pins are moved every day, but it was still No. 9."

To put the feat into perspective, there were only four holes in one at the Summerfield Golf Course in all of 2011, although this year, things are looking up - there have now been six recorded.

Hiller said of his 11th hole in one, "That's a lot, isn't it? It's hard to believe."

Hiller, who has been playing golf for about 30 years, said he has been playing at Summerfield for the past couple of years.

"It was fortunate," he said. "It was luck. There is a whole lot of luck involved with a hole in one. Some people play their whole life and never get one, and others play a short time and get one."

Goodale called it his "virgin hole in one," noting he has played golf for decades but never hit the jackpot before.

"I was playing with two other guys, and one thought he heard the ball hit the pin," Goodale said. "They both ended up on the green, and I thought my ball had gone off to the side. I looked around for a couple minutes, and then one of the guys looked in the hole, and there it was.

"A lot of times, the balls ricochet off the pin. The pros get holes in one a lot more often, but old duffers don't get lucky so often. But I guess you get lucky after 86 years."

For Keenan, this was his fourth hole in one. He said he started playing golf in 2002 and got his first hole in one in 2006.

"I was really excited," he said. "I was playing with my 16-yar-old grandson. He was my witness. We high-fived each other. Now I'm waiting for the next one."

Lindsey gives every player who gets a hole in one a plaque with the scorecard and ball, and per a Summerfield Men's Golf Club tradition, each player who gets a hole in one receives $100, with the winners using some of the money to purchase fruit and sweet rolls for everyone.

Golf club member Jack Allen, who writes the club's results each month for the Regal Courier, said, "Because the aces were made within a one-week period, golfers enjoyed an assortment of fruit and sweet rolls for the better part of a week."

Jack Allen contributed to this story.