ceyoung
06-10-2005, 12:05 AM
After 3 aces, their cup runs over
By Steve Pajak -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, April 15, 2005
Tell people that you've won the lottery and, chances are, they won't believe you. At least you have a little piece of paper and a big check if you're telling the truth.
Tell people that you're one of three golfers who just made a hole in one on consecutive swings and there's no chance they're going to believe you. And all you have is a crumpled scorecard and your good word.
Bob Fleming, Marc Arcuri and Dan Condie say they made back-to-back-to-back ones Wednesday at the 15th hole at Antelope Greens. Their feat is going to inspire both awe and skepticism from golfers around the world.
"They all hit great shots," said Dave Schumacher, the one member of the foursome not to make an ace and forever to bear the burden as "the witness."
"It's something that I'll never see again."
It's something that no one has likely seen before. The odds of an average golfer making a hole in one are 12,700 to 1, according to the National Hole in One Association. Golf Digest pegs the odds of two players in the same foursome acing the same hole at 17 million to 1. When three players on an Australian course made aces within 10 minutes, HoleInOne.com said the feat was 27 trillion to 1.
Pete Ames, the assistant manager at the Antelope course, said he has heard of one player making two holes in one in a round at the short course that features 14 par 3s and four par 4s. But nothing this crazy.
"If it was your average Joe coming in, I'd say you guys are full of it," Ames said. "But I happen to know these guys and have played a lot of golf with them. I'm 100 percent positive about it."
Fleming, 55, and Condie, 46, often shoot near par and have Northern California Golf Association handicap indexes of 1.7. They compete in high-profile regional events - Fleming has been around the amateur scene for decades and won the senior division of the Sacramento Valley Match Play Championship last weekend at Diamond Oaks. Arcuri, 52, estimates his handicap index is 5.
Fleming acknowledges the skepticism. His brother didn't believe him at first. That's what happens when you accomplish something that Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Annika Sorenstam couldn't if they hit balls 24 hours a day for three years.
"I said to my brother, if we were trying to scam somebody, the fact that it's gone to the "Today" show would have been a bad thing," Fleming said. "The fact of the matter is, we're all honest guys."
News of the accomplishment spread quickly. Local television and radio jumped on it. Representatives for David Letterman and Jay Leno called.
The three said they were to meet a "Today" show crew today at 4 a.m. at Antelope Greens for a live broadcast to the East Coast. The show will be broadcast locally beginning at 7 a.m.
Thursday afternoon at Woodcreek Golf Course in Roseville, the same foursome couldn't get to the first tee because of the media and other distractions.
"It's been surreal," Arcuri said.
The four players are among a group of about 15 who regularly play together in low-stakes games. They said they selected the pitch-and-putt course because it was late in the afternoon and they wanted to play 18 holes.
Schumacher had the honors on the 15th tee. But his shot to the hole - playing about 100 yards to a front-left pin - was short of the green.
Fleming hit a sand wedge, which landed just short of the hole, spin-checked for a bounce and disappeared for his sixth career hole in one - and second at this hole.
After the high-fives, Fleming said he headed for the scorecard. "I put down a dot for a greenie, two dots for an eagle and a dot for a skin," he said of their betting game. "After I made mine, I assumed nobody else was going to."
The eraser would come in handy.
Arcuri hit a low pitching wedge that landed a few feet short of the green, hopped a little to the right and dove into the hole with some speed. The shot wasn't particularly well struck, but it resulted in his fourth hole in one.
"We were flabbergasted," Fleming said.
Despite all the ensuing whooping and hollering, Condie said it never dawned on him that following consecutive aces would carry any special significance.
"Sure, I thought of it, but just for split second," he said. "There wasn't any pressure or anything because hole in ones are flukes anyway, as far as I'm concerned. You can hit good shots and never make a hole in one and hit a bad shot and have it go in."
Condie lifted a high sand wedge that hit softly and started trickling toward the hole. "It was kind of like Tiger's chip (at the 16th hole Sunday) at the (Masters, slow motion toward the hole."
Then it went in. Career ace No. 3 made it three in a row for the group.
"When it went in, I just said, 'Oh, my God,' " Condie said. I put my hands up, and everybody came running over.
"I turned to those guys and I said, I think we just did something that's never been done before. You don't know how big this is. We just made golf history. It was like a dream."
As the group headed for the green, Fleming said that he half expected to find the balls in a little hollow in the green where they couldn't be seen from the tee. The opposite turned out to be true.
"The hole was actually on a little mound," he said. "I'm telling you, three guys couldn't have made three 5-footers in a row (to that hole location). It was pure fate and pure luck."
The balls were completely inside the hole, said Fleming, the park and urban forest manager for the city of Sacramento. Arcuri is retired after 32 years with Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads. Condie is in sales for the Ready-Pak produce company.
Their story will live on for years. It isn't some fish tale, they swear, but the details of one of the most magical, if unlikely, minutes in the history of the sport.
Or the hoax of a lifetime, some will insist.
"It happened," Fleming said. "I was there."
from the sac bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/12729126p-13581045c.html
P.S. sorry for starting a new thread
By Steve Pajak -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 am PDT Friday, April 15, 2005
Tell people that you've won the lottery and, chances are, they won't believe you. At least you have a little piece of paper and a big check if you're telling the truth.
Tell people that you're one of three golfers who just made a hole in one on consecutive swings and there's no chance they're going to believe you. And all you have is a crumpled scorecard and your good word.
Bob Fleming, Marc Arcuri and Dan Condie say they made back-to-back-to-back ones Wednesday at the 15th hole at Antelope Greens. Their feat is going to inspire both awe and skepticism from golfers around the world.
"They all hit great shots," said Dave Schumacher, the one member of the foursome not to make an ace and forever to bear the burden as "the witness."
"It's something that I'll never see again."
It's something that no one has likely seen before. The odds of an average golfer making a hole in one are 12,700 to 1, according to the National Hole in One Association. Golf Digest pegs the odds of two players in the same foursome acing the same hole at 17 million to 1. When three players on an Australian course made aces within 10 minutes, HoleInOne.com said the feat was 27 trillion to 1.
Pete Ames, the assistant manager at the Antelope course, said he has heard of one player making two holes in one in a round at the short course that features 14 par 3s and four par 4s. But nothing this crazy.
"If it was your average Joe coming in, I'd say you guys are full of it," Ames said. "But I happen to know these guys and have played a lot of golf with them. I'm 100 percent positive about it."
Fleming, 55, and Condie, 46, often shoot near par and have Northern California Golf Association handicap indexes of 1.7. They compete in high-profile regional events - Fleming has been around the amateur scene for decades and won the senior division of the Sacramento Valley Match Play Championship last weekend at Diamond Oaks. Arcuri, 52, estimates his handicap index is 5.
Fleming acknowledges the skepticism. His brother didn't believe him at first. That's what happens when you accomplish something that Tiger Woods, Vijay Singh and Annika Sorenstam couldn't if they hit balls 24 hours a day for three years.
"I said to my brother, if we were trying to scam somebody, the fact that it's gone to the "Today" show would have been a bad thing," Fleming said. "The fact of the matter is, we're all honest guys."
News of the accomplishment spread quickly. Local television and radio jumped on it. Representatives for David Letterman and Jay Leno called.
The three said they were to meet a "Today" show crew today at 4 a.m. at Antelope Greens for a live broadcast to the East Coast. The show will be broadcast locally beginning at 7 a.m.
Thursday afternoon at Woodcreek Golf Course in Roseville, the same foursome couldn't get to the first tee because of the media and other distractions.
"It's been surreal," Arcuri said.
The four players are among a group of about 15 who regularly play together in low-stakes games. They said they selected the pitch-and-putt course because it was late in the afternoon and they wanted to play 18 holes.
Schumacher had the honors on the 15th tee. But his shot to the hole - playing about 100 yards to a front-left pin - was short of the green.
Fleming hit a sand wedge, which landed just short of the hole, spin-checked for a bounce and disappeared for his sixth career hole in one - and second at this hole.
After the high-fives, Fleming said he headed for the scorecard. "I put down a dot for a greenie, two dots for an eagle and a dot for a skin," he said of their betting game. "After I made mine, I assumed nobody else was going to."
The eraser would come in handy.
Arcuri hit a low pitching wedge that landed a few feet short of the green, hopped a little to the right and dove into the hole with some speed. The shot wasn't particularly well struck, but it resulted in his fourth hole in one.
"We were flabbergasted," Fleming said.
Despite all the ensuing whooping and hollering, Condie said it never dawned on him that following consecutive aces would carry any special significance.
"Sure, I thought of it, but just for split second," he said. "There wasn't any pressure or anything because hole in ones are flukes anyway, as far as I'm concerned. You can hit good shots and never make a hole in one and hit a bad shot and have it go in."
Condie lifted a high sand wedge that hit softly and started trickling toward the hole. "It was kind of like Tiger's chip (at the 16th hole Sunday) at the (Masters, slow motion toward the hole."
Then it went in. Career ace No. 3 made it three in a row for the group.
"When it went in, I just said, 'Oh, my God,' " Condie said. I put my hands up, and everybody came running over.
"I turned to those guys and I said, I think we just did something that's never been done before. You don't know how big this is. We just made golf history. It was like a dream."
As the group headed for the green, Fleming said that he half expected to find the balls in a little hollow in the green where they couldn't be seen from the tee. The opposite turned out to be true.
"The hole was actually on a little mound," he said. "I'm telling you, three guys couldn't have made three 5-footers in a row (to that hole location). It was pure fate and pure luck."
The balls were completely inside the hole, said Fleming, the park and urban forest manager for the city of Sacramento. Arcuri is retired after 32 years with Southern Pacific and Union Pacific railroads. Condie is in sales for the Ready-Pak produce company.
Their story will live on for years. It isn't some fish tale, they swear, but the details of one of the most magical, if unlikely, minutes in the history of the sport.
Or the hoax of a lifetime, some will insist.
"It happened," Fleming said. "I was there."
from the sac bee
http://www.sacbee.com/content/sports/story/12729126p-13581045c.html
P.S. sorry for starting a new thread