Fargo golf teammates defy the odds with aces

For any golfer, a hole in one is extremely rare. For two golfers on the same team to hit one on the same hole with the same club and in the same fashion just minutes apart? Nearly unheard of.

But that's what Fargo (N.D.) Davies freshmen golfers Brandon Winter and Collin Larson did last week at Rose Creek Golf Course during their team's tryouts. Both aced the par-3 No. 4, a 140-yard hole. Both used 9-irons on their shots, and both golfers' shots took a similar path into the cup.

"We were kind of all in shock, to be honest with you," said Steve Kennedy, the Fargo Davies coach who has been coaching golf for 22 years. "It was kind of just a fluke."

The fourth hole at Rose Creek currently is using a second green, since the normal green can become flooded in the spring, said Matt Cook, the course's PGA professional. So Winter, Larson and the rest of the golfers were hitting at the second green on that day.

"It's an actual green, so I wouldn't necessarily call it temporary," Cook said. "It's a fairly simple hole. Not a really big green, but there is a cart path that meanders along, then kind of wraps down below the two greens. I don't think either of them hit terrific shots going into it. Just kind of experienced a little bit of luck as it ricocheted off the cart path."

Larson was the first of the two to card his ace last Wednesday. His shot came up well short but hit the cart path and started rolling.

"When I saw it take a good bounce off the cart path right in front of the green and kept rolling and rolling, I thought it had a chance," said Larson, who began golfing as a sixth grader. "Then it went in, and I was really excited. … "I just jumped up and down and high-fived my teammate."

Winter wasn't far behind with his hole-in-one, recording it just 25 minutes later on the exact same hole, also with a nine iron. And like Larson, Winter's shot landed short but got a good bounce off the cart path.

"I felt like I didn't hit it very well, and then I saw it bounce once," Winter said. "I was just thinking, ‘There's no way it's going to happen.' I heard it hit the pin and it went in. It was crazy."

What are the odds that this scenario would play out that day? Not very good, that's for sure.

"I teach physics, and we starting talking about the angle that thing had to hit," Kennedy said. "When it hits the cart path, if it hits a different dimple in the cart path or a different ridge in the cart path, it goes a totally different direction. It's just ironic how that happened."

Cook has been the golf pro at Rose Creek for seven years and had never witnessed anything quite like this. He said the course has had two golfers hit a hole-in-one on the same day, but it happened on different holes. The way Larson and Winter achieved the rare feat was unthinkable.

"We were just talking about hole in ones a week or two before, talking about the odds and whatnot," Cook said. "I had seen somewhere, I remembered reading the odds of two people in one foursome hitting a hole in one are like one in 14 million or some kind of astronomical number."

Despite their holes-in-one, neither Winter nor Larson made the junior varsity or varsity golf teams at Fargo Davies, but both will golf for the freshman team this spring. While the odds remain slim that they'll hit another ace this season, each golfer hung onto their hole-in-one ball to remember that unforgettable day.

After carding his ace, Larson put the ball away in a safe place for the rest of the day.

"It's framed at my house," he said.

Winter, meanwhile, continued to play with it, running the risk that he might lose his hole-in-one ball in the trees or a pond. But he finished the round with it and plans to display it at home.

"When I hit it, I kept on playing with it the whole round," he said. "I hit it in the hole. Maybe it'd be lucky the rest of the round."

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