In the category of news that is unsurprising to anyone, golf is apparently a popular sport. While I don’t do anything beyond an occasional trip to the driving range, others are far more involved with the game. Gregory, the blogger behind Nine Pockets, provides readers with an annual statistical writeup of his performance on the links. My boss plans his family vacations around destinations that “just happen” to have nearby world class courses for him to play. When traveling for work I get hit up by vendors wanting to take me to golf events (No thanks! I’m good).
Golf is one of those things that everyone in my professional life seems to like. I spend most of my mornings negotiating through a running series of group chat messages with people at various firms. One of them was on vacation, and his substitute started sending photos of his grinning colleague’s golfing adventures to everyone on the chain. Specifically, this guy had traveled to Scotland for two weeks of golf. What made an already standout trip more amazing is that he logged two holes in one at different courses just one day apart.
Both of these shots were on Par 3 holes, which is logically the most common setup for a hole in one. “Common” is quite the understatement, as the odds of a PGA Tour pro nabbing a hole in one is something along the order of 1 in 3,000. Amateur duffers can expect tougher going with holes in one falling at a much more random 1 in 12,000 attempts. Multiple holes in one in a compressed timeline? Probably a once in a lifetime event.
The ’52 Topps Checklist Has a Few Holes in One
If you’re reading this, the odds are that you’re here for stories about baseball cards rather than golf. Sitting right in the first series of one of my favorite sets is White Sox pitcher Lou Kretlow. In terms of putting the ball over the plate he was…not particularly good. He walked 15% of all batters he ever faced. 1 in 8 batters coming up against him tagged him with earned runs.
These are not the stats of the guy you want on the mound for your favorite team. However, Kretlow did manage to pitch for a full decade in the majors, making him successful in terms of being effective enough to outlast the great majority of guys ever tasked with pitching. My ’52 Topps card shown above was issued at the height of his career, a year in which he spun a pair of shutouts a managed to keep his ERA starting with a 2.
What makes Kretlow stand out from other random pitchers is his post-MLB sporting career. He had fantastic golf skills, hitting a hole in one in the late 1950s, became a professional golfer in 1960 and played in multiple PGA events. He tried out for the US Open in 1962, coming close but ultimately not making the cut. However, his name was already etched into golfing history.
In March 1961 he was preparing for a large tournament at the Lake Hefner Golf Club in Oklahoma City. He had already qualified and was playing another round for the fun of the it. The par four 16th hole had been set up for the next day’s tournament play with markers set out 427 yards from the cup. Aided by what a newspaper described as a 45mph tailwind, his first shot veered out of sight. The ball dropped in among a foursome wrapping up their putts, rolled past the cup, and then rolled backwards for a hole in one. This was the longest recorded hole in one hit to that point, beating the old mark by 2 yards.
Proving his effort was no fluke, he again hit a hole in one in November 1961 using a 9-iron on a very short Par 3 hole. Kretlow’s distance record stood for a year and a half before it was eclipsed by a monster 480-yard hole hit by another golfer successfully cutting the corner of a U-shaped hole in Arkansas.
