Aces high: Golfers with Tallahassee ties share their hole-in-one stories, memories
It's golf's ultimate shot and thrill.
A hole-in-one.
For many, carding a hole-in-one remains just a dream.
According to the National Hole-in-One Registry, the odds of the average golfer making a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1. For professional golfers, the odds drop to 2,500 to 1.
Regardless, anyone who enjoys and plays golf probably believes they can achieve the impossible on the course.
Even when you are not expecting it.
Take John Henry Mills, for example.
The former Godby High and NFL player was enjoying his weekly round with friends in early July at Freeport Golf Course in Texas. The 7,200-yard course is described as an open, Texas layout with plenty of water hazards.
The par-3, 186-yard eighth hole is relatively straight from tee to green. Water runs down the right fairway and around the sides and back of the green. Mills, 52, plays the course routinely and likes the hole. However, he also said he usually hits his drive thin (top half of the ball, which typically results in a low shot).
"For some reason, I usually miss-hit it every time on that hole," Mills said and laughed.
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'Man, I think it went in'
With a slight wind at his back, Mills hit a 6-iron off the tee. He laughed as, once again, he hit the shot thin. Still, the ball had enough air under it and landed in front of the green. It rolled up and over a slight incline straight towards the flagstick. The hole was obscured.
"One of the guys in our group said, 'Man, I think that went in,' " Mills said.
"I thought it might be close to the pin so I grabbed my putter. We got about 20 yards from the green, and we only see three balls. I am thinking... the guys had their cameras ready to go and I ran up, looked down, and the ball was in the hole.
"I couldn't believe it."
Mills, a muscular 6-foot, 225-pounder who played seven seasons in the NFL and was a three-time All-ACC first-team selection at tight end for Wake Forest, went inner child on the green.
He tumbled to the ground and rolled around. He laughed, smiled and high-fived others in his group and posed for pictures after recording golf's holy grail for the first time.
"It was fun, it was funny, it was great, I was ecstatic," Mills said.
The good-natured Mills, who coaches high school football and is an NFL uniform inspector for the Houston Texans, also fulfilled golf's sacred tradition surrounding a hole-in-one. He purchased adult beverages for his group and others in the club house following his 18-hole round.
"It's a great thing to get, but horrible when you go to the bar. It's funny how everyone suddenly went from beer to top shelf (drinks)," Mills said and laughed.
As for the Titleist Pro V1 golf ball he hit into the hole for an ace, Mills nearly gaffed.
He continued to play his ball into his next round before being reminded to pocket it as a cool memento.
Aces and ages
While some golfers play years without ever recording an ace, the accomplishment isn't bound by age.
According to reports, the youngest golfer to get a hole-in-one is Jake Paine, who was 3-years-old when he aced a 65-yard hole at Lake Forest Golf and Practice Course in California in 2001. He later recorded two more aces at age 13.
The oldest player to make a hole-in-one is Harold Stilson, who was 101 when he aced the 108-yard 16th hole at Florida's Deerfield Country Club, also in 2001.
Tallahassee's Bradley Amos was age 7 when he joined that elite group in 2020. He recorded his first ace in on the par-3, 94-yard 17th hole at The Golf Club at Summerbrooke.
Bradley's older brother Jackson and mother Wendy were with him when he drove off the tee. The trio watched as the ball landed on the front edge of the green and rolled into the hole.
"My brother jumped and screamed," said Bradley, who plays in the local Red Hills Junior Golf Tour and attends Killearn Lakes Elementary.
Bradley, according to Wendy, was far more subdued.
He smiled and smirked like it was no big deal.
"I was like, 'Did that really go in?' " said Wendy, who also happened to video tape the ace. "I immediately emailed it to my husband (Robert). I couldn't believe that went in.
"It was good luck."
From hoops to golf
Chris Brokas, 64, has been involved in sports for most of her life.
She played basketball at Keystone Heights and signed with Florida State and coach Millie Usher in 1975. The Tallahassee resident retired in January after 17 years with Citizens Property Insurance Cooperation.
It was four years ago when Brokas aced the par-3, 115-yard sixth hole at Southwood Golf Club.
"I hit it pretty good and I think it took a couple of bounces and my buddy said, 'I think that's going in,' " Brokas said. "I knew I hit it good but you never think ..."
Brokas also recorded an ace on a par-3 hole during a tournament at Golden Eagle Country Club, winning two airplane tickets. As a youth in Keystone Heights, she also aced a par-3 hole on the community's nine-hole course – this after being happy just to land her tee shot on the green.
Other stories
Former FSU football player Jared Hetzel:
"I started playing golf in sixth grade and, although I don’t play as often as I did when I was younger, I continue to this day, 30 years later. My only hole-in-one was my sophomore year in high school (Belleview High, Florida), and I was playing with a couple friends and a teacher from my high school. It was a kind of golf class that our high school offered at the end of each semester of school. We were playing a little par-3 course, but it had a few short par 4s mixed in.
"The shot I will remember for the rest of my life was a 255 yard par 4 to a blind green. I hit my Taylor made 3-wood high and pure, so I knew I might have a chance for an eagle. I was disappointed when I did not see my ball on the green when it came into view. We found my ball mark about 30 feet in front of the hole, so we all just assumed I hit it through the green. We looked for about five minutes before my teacher asked if anyone even thought to look in the hole. We hadn’t. But we did. And there it was. Albatross. The very next day I hit an 8-iron to about 3 inches on a par 3, which still stands as the next closest I’ve come to another."
Tallahassee's Rick Oppenheim
"My first hole-in-one was pure luck. It was Aug. 3, 1996, and I was playing with some local friends at the Eagles Island Course in Odessa, after attending a business conference in Tampa. I was still a beginner, trying hard to consistently to break 130 (yes, 130!). We were on hole 4 (a 107-yard par 3) and my tee shot landed just short of the green, rolled up and disappeared. One of my friends said, "I think it went in," and we all scoffed – until we walked up to the green, didn't see my ball and looked in the hole. Yep. The proof of how terrible – and lucky – a golfer I was: I used an 8 iron for a 107-yard hole – and, despite the hole in one, still managed to shoot 126. The most exciting part was that I was mentioned in Don Veller's golf column in the Democrat about six weeks later (though he spelled my name wrong).
"My second hole-in-one came 14 years later. By then, my game had improved – I was now an 18 handicap – and I can claim a bit of skill to accompany my luck. It was a birthday round (actually, three days after my birthday) on January 23, 2010, on the long, 186-yard, par 3, 8th hole at Killearn Country Club's South Course. I was playing with a good friend (and my CPA and golf mentor), Frank Dorsey, and two others we were paired up with. It took every bit of my 5 iron to get there. A very exciting and memorable moment."
Former FSU men's basketball student manager Michael Wicks
"I played in a charity event for the Jacksonville School for Autism a few years back in a scramble format. Hitting last in the group on the last hole, made a hole-in-one from 156 with an 8 iron. Walked off and won a two-year lease on a Lexus, and into the clubhouse for an open bar reception, so I was spared buying the whole place drinks."
Author and former FSU beat writer Jeff Snook:
"I've had one ace and I got it with a special playing partner. Back when I worked in the Arena Football League in 1996-1998, Babe Parilli, the former Kentucky All-American quarterback, was the head coach of the Florida Bobcat franchise for one of those seasons and he and I played golf often, That day, on a 110-yard, par-3 in West Palm Beach, I hit a sand wedge well short, so I started walking back to the cart as soon as I hit it, I was almost sitting down when I heard Babe yell.
"He later described it to me, that it took one big hop and landed directly in the hole on one bounce. I never even saw it. Then Babe explained the tradition to me that anyone who has an ace picks up the bar tab that night. About five of us went to a bar, and I was figuring the tab in my head and he was always such a gentleman, he announced to our table, "Jeff got the ace, but I got the tab tonight guys – so drink up!:
"He also gave me one of the best trivia questions ever – "Who was Joe Namath's backup in Super Bowl III, in the Jet's upset of the Colts in the "I Guarantee it" game? He died not that long ago, but I can attest he was one of the most humble guys I ever knew."
Former FSU student Janice Arrowood Jennings:
"I had one, at the par-3 course near the old Tampa Bay Mall. I was playing a round with my Dad. We were about halfway through the course and I drove off a tee and neither of us saw where it went. We searched all along the fairway. Dad played his next shot and I dropped a new ball where his had been. His shot landed on the green, mine was short. I hit again and he went to pull the flag for his putt, as his was closer than my 2nd ball and said, “I don’t believe it. Here’s your ball.” That’s the last time I played golf with my Dad. Also my last (only) hole in one."
Oh Henry! Jim Henry's still searching
"I have played golf since my youth in Girard, Ohio, and some of my fondest memories include playing with childhood friends at our hometown course, Mahoning Country Club. I continue to play golf to this day, usually with son Bryan and buddies Ray Flach, Al Blizzard, Jim Marshall, Vic Vickers and others. I have never aced a hole, but have come within a few feet a couple of times.
"I know folks who have lived the dream.
"My father-in-law Larry Callaway, 83, has recorded three holes-in-one. Two came on the same day, Jan. 5 - but years apart. Blizzard, the former boys' basketball coach at Florida High, has two holes-in-one. The same with Marshall, a former golfer at the University of Michigan. Flach, who lives in Hudson, recently recorded his first career ace on his home course, Meadow Oaks, the par-3, 138-yard second hole with a 7 iron.
"It's not an easy feat, right?
"I was surprised to learn when I reached out that former FSU baseball coach Mike Martin, an accomplished golfer, has never scored a hole-in-one. Neither has former Florida High star and Cubs manager David Ross. Or my son Bryan, for that matter - though one of his best friends, former FSU pitcher Michael Hyde, aced the par-3, 205-yard 14th hole at Killearn Country Club.
"Still, a neat moment personally came last summer when I returned to Ohio for a reunion of our St. Rose eighth-grade class (1972). Playing Mahoning Country Club for the first time since 1974 with classmates Mickey "Bones" Rossi and Michael Davanzo, Rossi scored his first career hole-in-one on the par-3, 150-yard fourth hole.
"Bones hit a 6 iron with plenty of loft, landing that ball on the left edge of the green. It rolled down around 30 feet towards the middle of the green and, boom, into the hole. After a moment of stunned amazement, we celebrated like we were back in the eighth-grade, jumping, high-fiving and laughing. If I never ace a hole, that memory is the next-best-thing.
"Hit 'em straight ladies and gentlemen and, as always, cheers!"
Readers can follow sports editor Jim Henry at: @JimHenryTALLY (Twitter), Jim Henry (Facebook), JimHenry3131 (Instagram), Tallahassee.com (Tallahassee Democrat).
Reach Jim Henry at jjhenry@tallahassee.com.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Aces High: Golfers recount their first career holes-in-one
