Indispensable: Phil Mickelson claimed to have made 47 holes-in-one and I believe him.
Last fall, an 11-year-old named Holden Bautista accomplished an incredible feat by making two holes-in-one in a single round, with Tiger Woods as a witness. The kid cheekily asked Tiger if he had ever achieved double aces, saying, “You’re the greatest of all time, so it would be expected, right?”
Tiger laughed and responded, “You just had to bring that up. Alright, I’ll give you that one.”
There isn’t really an equivalent to a hole-in-one in other sports. It’s the perfect blend of skill and luck, with a heavy emphasis on the latter. The closest comparison might be a “perfect game” in bowling, but rolling a 300 seems to rely more on skill than luck. The same goes for pitching a perfect game in baseball. Any golfer, even with an imperfect swing, can potentially make a hole-in-one.
I read in the LIV media guide recently that Phil Mickelson claims to have made 47 holes-in-one. I believe him, and by the time I finished writing that sentence, he might have added a few more. This reminded me of a story from the 1980s about a woman in the Midwest who started making holes-in-one at an astounding rate. Since its founding in 1950, Golf Digest has kept official records of the game, so she reported her aces to our senior editor, John P. May, who trusted people’s word. She made four or five in January and February. The local newspaper took notice when she achieved her 6th, 7th, and 8th holes-in-one in March and April. By the time I was sent to interview her in June, she had reached her 9th, 10th, 11th, and 12th holes-in-one, setting a record for most in a year. I hurried to see her before she recorded her 13th and 14th.
The challenge with confirming holes-in-one is that they are often hard to verify. Like Mr. May, we tend to believe people, but for records, particularly all-time records, a witness is essential. Ideally, the player’s companions should see the ball hit, fly through the air, land on the green, and roll into the hole. However, blind greens, poor eyesight, or a lack of witnesses can make verification difficult.
There’s a well-known story about a club pro’s daughter who made a hole-in-one early one morning. When she told her father, he naturally asked who she was playing with. She replied that she had played alone, and he explained that a hole-in-one needed a witness to be officially recognized, much to her disappointment. Shortly after, a letter arrived at the club from a passenger on a train that runs alongside the course. The gentleman wrote that he had seen a girl hole her tee shot on a par 3 from the train window and wanted to congratulate her. The old pro immediately called his daughter and said, “Congratulations, you’ve now made your hole-in-one.”
Ben Hogan once dreamed he made 17 straight holes-in-one and barely missed on the 18th.
I’m not going to ask our fact-checker to verify Mickelson’s 47 holes-in-one or the club pro’s tale. However, for all-time records, we did try to find witnesses for the woman who was sinking them by the dozen. It seemed that her witnesses each mentioned not exactly seeing the ball go in but stated it went towards the flag or the green, and when they looked for it, they found the ball at the bottom of the hole.
I knew Art Wall, who won 14 PGA Tour events, including the 1959 Masters, but was more famous for making 45 holes-in-one. The number was hard to believe and he was frequently questioned, becoming a topic of golf humor to the point where he stopped discussing it. After all, Byron Nelson made only eight holes-in-one in his illustrious career, Gene Sarazen seven, Bobby Jones two, Patty Berg one, and even the great Ben Hogan only made four. (“I might have made more if I’d aimed at the flag more often,” Hogan said. “Usually, I aim for parts of the green that give me the best putt.”
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