Birdie. Eagle. Condor? Golfer makes par 6 in 2 shots
‘It’s pretty amazing, and a pretty significant piece of golf history’
An East Bay golfer playing in blue jeans and using a bright yellow ball hit two miraculous shots in succession — not seeing where either landed — to touch off a once-in-a-lifetime celebration no one truly understood.
Welcome to the quirky world of the nearly 700-yard 18th hole at Lake Chabot Golf Course, where anything goes, and goes and goes on the steep slope high atop the Oakland hills, purportedly home to the only par- 6 hole west of the Mississippi.
Better known for its eccentricities — like the two-lane road that pits driver against driver for the precarious right of passage through the fairway — it might soon be renowned for something unique: the spot where the only condor (a minus- 4 score) on a par- 6 hole in United States golf history was recorded.
Confused? Imagine what went through Kevin Pon’s mind last month when the 54-year- old Castro Valley man shocked even himself.
Twice. First by launching a 540yard drive from the top of the hill that somehow bounced, rolled and finally landed at the bottom of the hill. Then by using a pitching wedge to hole in from 120 yards on a blind shot to the elevated pin.
“I still can’t believe it. I didn’t even see the ball come to rest on either of those two shots,” said Pon, who returned to the game two years ago after a 10-year hiatus. “It’s like I’ve been telling people, ‘ You know, this has been a weird year.’ ”
Bizarre enough for Pon to wonder if he got some help from beyond. His mother-in-law, Irene Tekawa, had died at 83 less than two months earlier. She had shared a love of golf with him, having played 2-3 times per week herself before her death.
“Maybe she helped the ball that day?” Pon said.
Darren Lee, Pon’s friend and
playing partner that day, still can’t shake the images of what he witnessed that sunny Dec. 10 day.
“It’s pretty amazing, and a pretty significant piece of golf history, especially for the Bay Area and that Oakland course. And I got to see it,” Lee said.
A marshal was among a group near the hole who saw Pon’s ball take a big bounce, a little bounce, bang off the flagstick and into the hole.
The marshal, Artie Yamashita, later went around delivering a message to fellow witnesses.
“I told them, ‘ You just witnessed something you’ll probably never see again in your lifetime.’ This is much more rare than a hole-inone,” Yamashita said.
The PGA has long calculated the odds of an average golfer hitting a hole-inone at 12,500-to-1. A condor is so rare the PGA doesn’t list odds.
In golf history, only four condors had been reported worldwide, most recently in 2007 in Australia. But all four came on par- 5 holes.
Jerry Stewart of the Northern California Golf Association recently verified Pon’s score as “legit” after an investigation that included an interview with Jamie Lopez, Lake Chabot’s assistant general manager, who was on- site for Pon’s master strokes.
Stewart admitted he was incredulous when he first heard Pon’s drive went more than 500 yards. ( Tiger Woods’ longest is 498 yards.)
Then Stewart saw a picture of Chabot’s steep 18th hole, with its cart path zigzagging across the fairway all the way down the hill, and better understood.
“It sounds like he did hit the path. He may have hit the path twice. It may have hopped and went a hundred yards, then hopped again and went another hundred yards. He got lucky,” Stewart said.
Ordinarily, Pon hits his driver about 280 yards. But this was no ordinary day. This was a drive for the ages.
“Kevin really smacked the hell out of it, man,” Lee said of the drive that faded slightly to the right and around the tree-lined fairway as it quickly disappeared from vision.
Pon, who admitted he gave it “a little extra,” was feeling pretty good about his shot while driving his cart down the hill. Until both he and Lee realized they had no idea where his ball was.
“I thought I lost it,” Pon said.
Suddenly, they both looked toward the bottom of the hill in time to see a man in a cart point to the ground and quickly drive away. Sure enough, there was Pon’s yellow ball with its black dot, somehow making it where few others have gone off the tee.
“I was like, ‘Holy smokes, how did it get down there?’ ” Pon said. “It had to hit a cart path or a sprinkler.”
Still in a state of disbelief, Pon then took his second shot from 120 yards away, aiming for the only thing he could see — the very top of the flag. It was perfection again. He just didn’t immediately realize it.
Pon and Lee were taken aback when they heard an eruption of cheers from a group of people who were atop the hole after finishing their round.
“I figured I just hit a good shot,” Pon said.
The clapping and yelling only intensified as Pon made his way up the hill to the hole, causing Pon to think the unthinkable — did it go in?
“I looked in the hole and it was in there. I could not believe I had hit the drive of my life and then hit it in the hole the next shot. And I didn’t even see the ball come to rest on those two shots,” Pon said.
Pon and Lee celebrated along with the others who gathered by the 18th hole. Then they looked at each other and asked the question no one there could answer.
“A two on a par 6?” What’s that called? Even Yamashita, the marshal, didn’t know.
By the time Pon was driving away from the course, he knew. They all knew.
It’s called a miracle.