Bob Edelblut
On Thursday, March 8 Tom and his partner Dave Hill were playing their second-round match in the MPMGA’s Member-Member Match Play Tournament at the Preserve Golf Club. Yes, it was an official Men’s Club event and another keg of beer will be opened in his honor at our next monthly luncheon. We thank you! Remember the sixth hole at the Preserve? It is the one with danger everywhere—desert in front of you, desert on the left and right of you and a monster trap guarding the right side of the green. Okay, it’s a beautiful hole. Playing from the gold tees Tom decided his distance was about 145 yards and he chose an eight iron for the shot. There was just a touch of stress when he made his swing because his two opponents had already hit their shots safely on the green and his team was running out of holes. At first, his thought was that his ball was going to make the trap but it had just enough draw to hit on the left shoulder of the bunker and kick smartly onto the green. Everyone knew the ball was rolling toward the flag but not one person saw it drop into the cup. Seconds later the celebration began when the ball was located resting comfortably in the bottom of the cup. Doug Johnson, Phil Gray and Dave Hill all witnessed Tom’s fourth hole-in-one.
Tom shared with us that his love affair with golf is now in its sixth decade and that one of his holes-in-one was made on a par four thus making it also a rare double eagle. Not bad! Unfortunately, Tom also shared with us that he and his partner lost their match that day on the last hole. Not to worry, next year is just around the corner.
Tom’s hole in one also gives us another opportunity to recognize the MPMGA’s hole in one sponsors. Most have been sponsors for many years and have unselfishly provided every member scoring a hole-in-one at a Men’s Club event a variety of wonderful prizes. Here they are one more time: Pottery Fiesta, Holmes Tuttle Ford, Lexus of Tucson Auto Mall, Apache Gold Casino, Golf Cars of Arizona, Brue Chiropractic, Gourds by Vargas, Catalina Hardware, Twin Lake Air LLC, Matt Hudson-PGA Golf Professional and Van’s Golf Shop. We thank you all again.