A holeinone one day and then ... another the next day
Donna Lawrence enjoys the exercise and social element of golf. She’s not especially competitive — she sometimes doesn’t keep score and she certainly didn’t spend much time thinking about making a holeinone.
Then, suddenly, she made her first Saturday at Stanford Golf Course. Then she made another one Sunday.
Two holesinone in two days. How about that for a memorable weekend?
“It’s very bizarre,” Lawrence said. “Your eyes sort of pop out of your head.”
And for good reason. The National Holein One Registry doesn’t keep track of aces on consecutive days, but the organization estimated the odds of an “average player” making one at 12,000to1, according to its website. The odds of making two in the same round are 67 million to one.
Lawrence, an assistant vice president of development at Stanford, has played golf for about 20 years. She occasionally breaks 100 when she does keep score; she shot 101 on Saturday and 102 on Sunday.
But what she’ll remember is the 9iron shot Saturday on No. 4, from 102 yards. And the 7wood shot Sunday on No. 3, from 136 yards.
In both cases, Lawrence didn’t see her ball find its way into the cup ( slightly raised, given coronavirus precautions). On Saturday, she and her friend, Lee Gregory, saw the shot tracking toward the flagstick but didn’t immediately realize it went in.
Upon reaching the green, they initially thought a ball 1215 feet from the hole was Lawrence’s, but it wasn’t ( they believe it was left behind by the group in front of them). Then Lawrence checked the hole and discovered her ball.
The next day, she played with Denis Baylor and his wife, Eileen. A slightly elevated bunker obscured their view of the green, but they knew Lawrence’s shot was close. She soon peered into the hole and found her ball there. Again.
“All three of us were amazed and delighted,” Denis Baylor said.
Lawrence was reluctant to make a big deal of this unlikely feat, but her husband, David Voss, couldn’t resist. He sent an email to several Stanford officials, including men’s golf coach Conrad Ray ( also interim general manager of the course), who shared the news with The Chronicle.
“It was a ton of fun,” Lawrence said. “The other good news: The bar was closed and I didn’t have to buy drinks.”