Bob Edelblut
I am beginning to wonder if someone or something is priming our pumps. We are barely six weeks into our new season and four holes-in-one have already been recorded by Men’s Club members. Can we possibly best the record of 17 we set in 2016? On Sunday, February 4, at 12:10 p.m. Rick Fernandez made the fourth. Rick has been a pillar of our golf community for many years and most of you, I’m sure, will remember that he was the club’s Tournament of Champions winner in 2017. He kind of ran away from the field!
The sixth hole at the Preserve Golf Club provided his thrill on this day. The shot from the platinum tees was about 125 yards, a back pin, and he used his eight iron. He remembers very clearly that his ball landed left and above the flag some six feet away and then rolled ever so slowly down to the cup. His son Steve said that he heard the ball hit the pin. This is a bit showy but Rick swears that this was his third hole-in-one on this hole and that all were made when the pin was located at the back of the green and that he used a yellow Titleist each time. Don’t ever change balls! Good story.
Rick is a native Floridian growing up in the Sebring area. He remembers walking local public courses with his father as a ten-year-old carrying an old five iron and trying hard to strike a ball. Another good story. Equally good is the fact that Rick has obviously passed the correct genes to his son Steve because he has already recorded three holes-in-one himself on our SaddleBrooke courses. Congratulations to both of you.