Ottawa golf course celebrates golfers who hit back-to-back holes-in-one

Two Ottawa golfers aced the same hole at Greensmere Golf and Country Club. CTV’s Camille Wilson with the story of the back-to-back holes-in-one.

A hole-in-one is a special occasion for any golfer, but seeing it happen back-to-back is an even rarer event.

Greensmere Golf and Country Club in Carp announced Thursday that two golfers on its links each hit a hole-in-one on the same hole.

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“Greensmere Members Lyle Alexander and Jim Read had back to back (same group-consecutive shots) hole-in ones on #12 Premiere today,” a Facebook post says. “If hole-in-ones are very rare, this is something else all together! Well done gentlemen!!!”

Alexander and Read joined Newstalk 580 CFRA’s Ottawa at Work with Patricia Boal on Friday to discuss their achievements.

“I got the hole-in-one first and then Jim copied me,” said Alexander, adding this is his seventh lifetime hole-in-one. “I was looking forward to my free beer until Jim teed off.”

Read said his hole-in-one was his first.

“It was very, very impressive. There was four of us playing and Lyle had the honours and he hit a beautiful shot. It landed on the green and the ball disappeared into the hole,” he said. “It’s now my turn, and I said, ‘Well, this is a tough act to follow.’ So, I pulled out my trusty wedge and landed it and all of a sudden my ball disappeared and it landed on top of Lyle’s. We were still celebrating Lyle’s when mine went in.”

Read said since Alexander had the first hole-in-one, he had the honour of buying the beer.

“I think everybody was in shock. We tried to calculate the odds of that happening and they were so large we realized it was a feat that might not ever be repeated again,” said Alexander.

“We’re gonna try,” Read said.

According to Hole in One International, the odds of making a hole in one on a par 3 are roughly 1 in 12,500 for amateurs and 1 in 2,500 for professionals.

“But what about the odds of two people making it on the same hole? Or better yet, back-to-back hole in ones?” Hole in One International’s website asks. “Those are even more astounding: 32,000 to 1 and 156,250,000 to 1, respectively.”

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Bill Rainboth, a golf professional at Greensmere Golf and Country Club, says he’s never heard of anything like this happening.

“Well, a hole-in-one is one of the rarest things that you’ll ever see and some people still haven’t. I’m a member of the PGA for almost 30 years and I’ve never heard of anything like this,” he told CTV News Ottawa. “For something like this to happen at our golf course is very rare, to say the least. To have it happen back-to-back and have two people in the same group enjoy that, it’s just something that you would never expect to see anywhere.”

Read says Alexander finished with a score of 68 strokes on Thursday.

“And I didn’t,” Read said. “Lyle is very polite. He’s been a club champion at Greensmere. He’s been a club champion at Outaouais, Mississippi, and Carleton. He knows his way around a golf course.”

Alexander says they’re talking with management at the Greensmere Golf and Country Club about some kind of commemoration of the moment.

With files from CTV News Ottawa’s Camille Wilson