Ian Stawicki didn’t even have to play golf on Tuesday.
But his boss at Classic Lanes in Greenfield, Wisconsin, texted him on Monday to see if he wanted to play in the Stars and Stripes Scramble at Lomira Golf Club. While the bowling alley was closed this week, Stawicki, 40, entered.
Sammy Williams, 27, is benefiting the local veterans as he participates for the third year in a row. Physical therapist is one of the first to rise at number 13.
At the end of their circle, the two golf-loving guests It will be bound by a strange fate. On the same day, in the same event, on the same hole as their first hole.
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Williams’ ace 9-iron came at 114 yards on that lucky No. 13.
“I got up there to hit it and then it’s flying and I’m like, ‘Oh, that’s a great line if it’s enough,'” Williams said. Then he went up, threw, went inside. And since we were on a high tee box, you could see it in full.
“Because it’s the first hole, nobody’s basically started playing yet. It was the start of the shot. So everybody heard me yell and was like, ‘Oh, that sounds a little more fun than a birdie.’ “
Stavky’s team was just underway and he wondered what the rukusu was about. A few hours later they came to the 13th hole. Stawicki was golfing with three women, so he was the only one to hit 176 yards with a 7-iron.
“I hit it and there’s a hill to the left of the first green,” Stawicki said. “And it sloped to the hole and I hit it and it kind of went out. I saw the ball roll and I lost it and I said, ‘OK.’ Everyone was like, ‘Where did it go?’
“I didn’t want to say it, but I said it might be in the hole. They’re like, ‘Yeah, right. What’s wrong with me?’ So we drive to the next level for them to come out and my partner says ‘I don’t see your ball on the green. are you sure?’ ‘I’m positive it’s on the green,’ I said. “
As they reached for a deeper inspection, a flash of light appeared illuminating the hole. All that was missing was the singing of the Gospel Angels.
“The sun shines on the ball,” Stawicki said. “So he lit the golf ball and you could see it. And now I started to smell it.”
He soon learned the greater part of the situation.
“They had a five-socket on the hole and someone else had one on that hole a few hours ago,” Stawicki said. “I was like, ‘Was this the same hole?’ They were like ‘yeah’ and I was like ‘this is crazy!’ “
Shortly after Stawicki’s shot, Williams ended the round at 12.
“The cart girl came and went, ‘Oh, I hate to tell you, but I shot another guy who got a hole in the hole you did,'” Williams said. “Me too.” ‘Really?’ “
The staff at the Golf Club at Camelot estimate they average three holes a year. It was not immediately clear if what Stowicki and Williams did happened earlier in the state. But in 2017, it happened in Illinois. With the story on PGA.com Noting that “according to the National Hole-in-One Registry, the odds of two amateur golfers hitting the same hole on the same golf course on the same day are 17 million-to-1.”
For that unusual feat, Stawicki and Williams shared two cases of Sprecher’s Root Beer, awarded to the “closest to the pin” golfer at the Stars and Stripes Scramble.
Stawicki said he plays about a dozen outings a year, with another every few weeks.
“I’m more of a good ball player,” Stawicki said. And I got a lot of 300 games. My first hole, I mean, maybe you set yourself up for a high and now you want another one.
Williams played golf at Sussex Hamilton High School and Lakeland College. She still starts the course once a month. That ace stoked the fires of competition.
“I’m going to keep playing,” she said, “my dad has three, so I have to get more.”