Janesville golfer aces same hole, two weeks apart

Chad Courrier, The Free Press, Mankato, Minn.
·2 min read

Jun. 14—It was a Sunday afternoon, and Denny Garms looked out of the window of his home, just off the fairway at Prairie Ridge Golf Course.

He wanted to get nine holes in before dark, but the course was packed.

"I decided I was just going to hit a bucket of balls," Garms said.

Well, he found a friend who was looking for a playing partner, and he took off, getting to the sixth hole, where he made the first hole-in-one of his career.

"I thought (the ball) had gone over," Garms said. "But as (playing partner Barry Hauge and I) drove up, we didn't see it. He kept saying, 'It went in, it went in.' Sure enough, it was in the hole."

That would be a nice story about a 75-year-old golfer who got his first hole-in-one after picking up the game 34 years ago. But he wasn't done.

Two weeks later, on the same 96-yard par-3, he made another ace.

"I got to see that one go in," he said.

Prairie Ridge Golf Course is a reversible nine-hole tract in Janesville. The golfers play one direction for a week, then play the course the opposite way for a week.

Garms, who started playing golf when Prairie Ridge opened in 1989, made both of his holes-in-one playing the South course.

"It was pretty amazing," said Scott Allen, club professional at Prairie Ridge. "The odds of getting a hole-in-one on the same hole, two weeks apart, are staggering."

The second ace came during league play, as 10 members of the Purple Goose team were there.

"They guys were giving me a hard time about making another hole-in-one, but I thought, no way," Garms said. "But the ball hit on the edge of the green and rolled right in.

"That one cost me about $80 in drinks."

Garms' aces were the first of the season at Prairie Ridge, and there have been two since.

Garms plays three or four times a week so he'll have plenty of opportunities to add to his career hole-in-one total.

"I hit from the (red tees), and I get a lot of crap for that," Garms said. "But I'm old. I'm probably never going to get another one, but it was pretty exciting."

Follow Chad Courrier on Twitter @ChadCourrier.