Struck By Lightning

You are more likely to be struck by lightening than to get a hole in one during a golf game - unless you're a golf pro.

My husband isn't. A golf pro, that is. He is now someone who has hit a hole in one. He's still  flying high more than a week later.

It kind of defies physics, when you think about it. You're whacking a 1.68" ball with a stick. On this particular hole - No. 5 at the Stafford County Country Club - the ball has to fly 135 feet and hit a hole in the ground that's only 4.25 inches across.

Randy began golfing about eight years ago and was playing in the club's annual tournament August 18 and 19. On Saturday, he got two birdies on the Par 3 hole. That doesn't often happen, and he's the first to admit it.

 “I consider myself lucky to even par a hole,” he says.

On Sunday afternoon, he birdied the No. 5 hole on the first round and then got a hole in one in the second round.  

On an earlier hole, one of Randy’s shots was going out of bounds, hit a telephone pole and bounced back on the green. Golfer J.J. Falk told him, “You’ll get a hole in one before that happens again.” 

Five holes later, he got his hole in one. It was witnessed by J.J. Falk, Jim Hoffman and Kenny Kisner.

Need more complications? On this particular hole, you can't even see the finish from where you tee off. 

For the record, the odds of being struck by lightning in your lifetime are 1 in 5,000.  ( I doubt they figured the odds of that happening during a two-year drought either, but that's another story).

In 2000, Golf Digest hired Francis Scheid to determine the odds of making a hole in one. Scheid broke the odds down based on the quality of the player and the amount of play:

•  The odds of a PGA tour player making a hole in one are 3,000 to 1.
•  His data showed a low handicap player to have 5,000 to 1 odds.
• An average handicap player had 12,000 to 1 odds. 

Randy is one happy 12,000 to 1 kind of guy.

No. 5 - Looking back toward the tee box. But you can't see it from here!

Just in case you're interested, the Stafford County Country Club is open to the public. Green fees are $15 a day. From the intersection of Highway 50 and Highway 281 in Stafford County, it is located 2 miles east and 1 ½ miles south. It is a 9-hole course, watered on the greens and fairways. For more information on the course, call 620-549-6597.

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Full disclosure:  These photos weren't taken the day of the infamous hole in one. We went by the golf course on our way to a Farm Bureau meeting last week. But Randy did send Brent and Eric photos of the original hole in one via his camera phone. That's a 12,000 to 1 kind of moment, too. Here's that photo: