Bruce Punger wants to tell a golf story he thinks you might never forget. “It’s March 1, 2014. I’m on the par-three 13th at The Creek Club. It’s real quiet when I hit my tee shot right at the hole. It lands short and …”
Hang on, Bruce. Dottie Farmer has a story, too:
“I’m at number-13 at The Creek Club and hit my tee shot off to the right of the hole. I think, ‘Oh no, that’s trouble.’ The ball hits off the bank and careens to the left. Now I’m thinking, ‘Hmm. Maybe.’ It rolls back to the middle and …”
Just a minute, Dottie. Here’s John Bonno:
“It’s a Friday in May 2012. I hit my tee shot a little short on number-13 at The Creek Club. It bounces once on the collar, bounces again and …”
Each story ends the same: “It’s in the hole!”
There are 40-50 such stories every year at the par-three 13th. That’s more than five times as many holes-in-one than the next most generous hole at Reynolds — number-11 at The Creek Club. John has aced it twice. His wife, Jeannette, once. Dottie Farmer’s husband, Richard, watched a friend’s tee shot circle around and drop.
“As long as the ball is still rolling,” says Dottie, “stick around because it has a chance.”
It so happens tee shots can roll a lot. “The ball sometimes looks like it’s on a pendulum,” says John. “You can wait 10 seconds for it to stop rolling.”
Bruce tells his story with so much conviction because it’s missing one element: a witness. “I was alone. When I saw the ranger, I yelled, ‘Hey, Pete, I just knocked it in the hole.’ He was excited, but he’d probably seen it happen before.”
He’d see it again, too, because a player in the foursome right behind Bruce repeated the feat. Two years later, Bruce would do it again, this time with his friends watching.
“That one cost me a few more bucks at the bar,” he says. He isn’t complaining because now those friends can spread the legend.
