Bob Johnson takes his seat on the train

Bob enjoying his moment.

Bob Edelblut

All of a sudden, the MPMGA Men’s Club Hole-in-One Train is overcrowded! Bob Johnson brought the total for the year to eight and forced our engineer to add a second car to his train. Hard to believe that some are beginning to think that we can best our 2016 record of seventeen.

On Friday, April 27 Bob was playing the MountainView course with his regular Friday group. The other members of his team were John Stevenson, Bob Maruniak and Hank Malter and I have been told that when they reached the seventeenth hole they were already counting their winnings! Bob’s best guess was that his shot was about 170 yards. On this day with the pin sitting on the back-left portion of the green he needed a five iron for the shot. Bob was quick to say that even with his “new eyes” he did not see the ball roll into the cup and it appears that none of his partners saw it fall either. What could they have been watching? Once the ball’s fate had been determined all celebrated in the joy Bob was experiencing. It quickly became loud. Bob really felt that they were enjoying his moment as much as he was but I wonder if they might also be thinking about the big bucks coming their way. Did they say thank you, Bob? Congratulations one more time on your fourth hole-in-one!

Bob’s love affair with golf has spanned six decades. At the age of fifteen he went to work for a “Hogan era” tour pro in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, and he admits that he was hooked instantly. Obsessed may be a better word than hooked. Bob has during his career witnessed fourteen holes-in-one and can describe blow by blow each and every one of them. Wow! Maybe, however, the best part of Bob’s story is his wife Bonnie who for over fifty years has totally supported his pursuit of more and better golf! Sounds like a good story to me.