John McKinney savors the moment.
Bob Edelblut
It is fairly well known that the MPMGA is on a roll when it comes to scoring holes-in-one—eight in the first ten weeks of the year. Then on Thursday, March 17 at the Preserve Golf Club the most unbelievable, unimaginable and off the chart happening took place. John McKinney had two holes-in-one! Yes, two in the same round on the same day! Several interested parties including his playing partners searched the internet attempting to determine what the odds are against this feat being accomplished. As you can imagine there is no simple answer but it appears that the number is near 156 million to one. Wow! Congratulations one more time, John.
John was playing in the Men’s Club weekly event on the seventeenth and his partners were Mike Taken, Denny Wilbour and Rick Savoie. All enjoyed the excitement. Hole number six was the scene for John’s first ever hole-in-one. He remembered that the flag was red, the distance was around 103 yards and that he used his pitching wedge. His partners told him his shot was tracking toward the hole and, of course, he had his doubts because he could not see his shot. “Come on guys, don’t kid me,” he responded politely. The first wave of shock hit John when they got to the green and could not find his ball until, of course, they looked in the cup! The rest is history. An hour or so later when the round was almost over his group reached their last hole, the eleventh. John thought his last shot of the day was going to be about 115 yards and slightly uphill. In his mind he saw a nicely lofted shot heading toward a deep blue pin but in fact he hit a screamer that just missed the right bunker and then caught the ridge perfectly and headed left toward the pin. Once again he lost sight of the ball. When they reached the green John’s ball could not be located. Mike went to the cup and issued a loud, “Wow!” Shock once again took over and John responded, “Mike don’t do that to me” and he quickly shouted, “Look for yourself.” Unbelievable!
John took up golf in his late thirties, almost forty years ago, but early on he was at best only a weekend or business golfer. When John and his wife Helen moved to California he started playing seriously and more frequently. Today John plays twice a week with his groups and almost always tees it up on Thursday in Men’s Club competition. By the way, all Men’s Club member’s thank you for the beer they will enjoy in your honor at an upcoming luncheon and all of us hope you enjoy the basket of prizes you will receive from our Hole-in-One Corporate Sponsors. Lastly, let us tell you one more time how much the Men’s Club appreciates your generous and continuing corporate sponsorship. Thank you.