[tbowles411]

On a roll: Golfer records 5 holes-in-one in a week

KAPPA, Ill. – Central Illinois amateur golfer Curt Hocker is on a roll. Five rolls, to be exact. Just ask anyone at the El Paso Golf Club, where the 22-year-old has recorded five holes-in-one in the last week, including two on Saturday. In this year alone, Hocker has seven aces, five on par-4s, and two other double eagles.

"I don't know what to think," said Hocker, who works in the club's pro shop. "After each one I say it's over, and it keeps happening."

Friends and family, 15 of whom have witnessed Hocker's strokes of luck while playing with him, are equally mystified.

"It's incomprehensible this kind of luck could happen, but it does happen," said El Paso pro Steve Fulton. "There are other things in life that have been just as weird and eerie that have happened. What are the odds?"

Hocker said he's just glad that his club membership comes with "hole-in-one insurance."

That "insurance" means the club — and not Hocker — has to honor the golf tradition of buying everyone in the clubhouse a drink after an ace is made.

"I think the golf course is getting mad at me for all the drinks," Hocker said. "It's hard to talk about, but it's awesome to have it happen."

[PhillyHack73]

This is just unbelievable. I've never had one and this guy has five in a week

http://news.yahoo.co...d5_holes_in_one

[TM golf guy 182]

That is insane. I would call BS, but it says 15 people have witnessed it. Craziness.

EDIT: Read it again, and again, and again, and again, and there is definitely some BS in there.

[yuck]

BS, It will take a while before it all comes out. Something similar happened a few years ago with a lady player. It ended our being a real hole in one followed quickly be another dozen or more and a string of lies with sleight of hand, lies, and witnesses who did not actually see the ball go into the cup. Or........... the cups at El Paso country club are being set in depressions. On the 5 holes in one on par 4's how many do you suppose are doglegs? Who do you suppose got to the cup first?

Sorry to be so cynical, I guess I am having a bad week.

[PhillyHack73]

yuck, on Nov 6 2008, 09:53 PM, said:

BS, It will take a while before ir all comes out. Something similar happened about 10 years ago with a lady player. It ended our being a real hole in one followed quickly be another half a dozen and a string of lies with sleight of hand, lies, and witnesses who did not actually see the ball go into the cup. Or........... the cups at El Paso country club are being set in depressions. On the 5 holes in one on par 4's how many do you suppose are doglegs? Who do you suppose got to the cup first?

Sorry to be so cynical, I guess I am having a bad week.

I bet you enjoy telling small children there is no Santa Claus.

It is hard to fathom - fives aces in a week. I'd like to take him to Vegas before all the good luck wears off.

[yuck]

Here is a lady who claimed to have 16 in a single season....Also Suspect


http://www.golfdiges...11kindred_gagne

http://blogs.wsj.com...line-gagne-201/

[dsilvers]

bullxxxx......5 on Par 4s???

[BDLz]

"In this year alone, Hocker has seven aces, five on par-4s, and two other double eagles."

I think the article was probably written by someone who knows nothing about golf. I think it meant to say 5 holes in one on par 3s and 2 hole outs for eagle on par 4s. The guy probably has no idea that a hole in one is just an eagle and not a double eagle. That would make more sense.

Should have been written like this.
"In this year alone, Hocker has seven eagles. Five on par 3s, and two other eagles."

BDLz

[tmfan54]

BDLz, on Nov 6 2008, 11:32 PM, said:

"In this year alone, Hocker has seven aces, five on par-4s, and two other double eagles."


I think the article was probably written by someone who knows nothing about golf. I think it meant to say 5 holes in one on par 3s and 2 hole outs for eagle on par 4s. The guy probably has no idea that a hole in one is just an eagle and not a double eagle. That would make more sense.

BDLz

agree. double eagle?!!!! no way. sorry i want to believe this and dont like not believing it, but double eagles are 1 in 100000000000. so few in the history the golf world would have known if this guy had two! maybe hole in one means "hole out." i dont know, but it just seems ridiculous.

[Jefflux]

Not just 2 double eagles, but 7 mofriggin' double eagles in one year because he had 5 holes in one on par 4s! Whaaaat? I just read this article, too, and came straight over here to see if anyone else caught it. This guy's better than Kim Jong Il!

[TRC79]

Is this the golfer that Earl stole beer from?

[TLUBulldogGolf]

I remember reading a story in golf digest or something about a guy that had made 7 hole in ones on par 4s, but it was in his life not in a week. There is no way this is true. The odds would have to be at least in the trillions of this happening.

[SwingLikeElk]

I really don't believe any of it, HOWEVER, it is possible for a person to have 5 holes in one in a week. If the guy's any good, hits his irons well and sticks the ball on the flag frequently it could happen.

I don't see how he could possibly record so many double eagles on par 4's. Even the fact that he plays so often is a bit suspect even though he supposedly works in the pro shop at the course. 5 holes-in-one in a week would mean at least five rounds with an ace per round. Again, if one can win a lottery or even get struck by lightning twice in a week, I guess it could happen. I had a grandfather that got into an auto accident with the same person 3 times in one day once.

It is humanly possible but not probable. That's why I doubt it.

[mont86]

I highly doubt it....5 aces on par 4s...No way...

[HackerD]

OP - where was this reported? It must be a hoax.

[slim16er]

I'm looking at the score card (found here http://www.elpasogol...ard_layout.pdf) and its a short course, only 6111 from the backs, but the par 4s are still over 300 yds so he must BOMB the ball. I'm gonna go with BS on this one.

[damnorcross]

Hopefully someone here on the GolfWrx board has played that course, and can let us know if the par 4s can really be aced. I'm definitely skeptical about this story.

[Mike1]

My home course has one par 4 that is 310 and it has been aced one time in 40 years and this guy has had 5 this year on par 4's. I'm calling bs.

[Fore_Man]

must be a really really really really short course!

How common is it for a course to have "insurance" for hole in one drinks? I have heard of it before... but i thought that most places make the lucky golfer pay out of pocket. One would think if they would carry such a policy that the course must get a lot of Aces every year...

Anybody able to get stats on that?

[nickGT]

I am calling BS on this story as well. The probability of it is just too high to believe.

[carogers1]

TRC79, on Nov 7 2008, 12:21 AM, said:

Is this the golfer that Earl stole beer from?

That would be the only explanation, unless he played this hole 7 times.....

http://english.chosu...0505020010.html

[Fore_Man]

Also, I'm a little shocked that given his streak and his supposed run of luck that he didn't have a video camera there to have one of his 15 friends/family record his shots in the event that he'd go it again, and again and again.... sounds like an insurance scam to me and a marketing ploy to get people to play a course that has given up so many ace/ablatroses, etc.

Hey Curt, come try your luck at my course! and BTW the red tees are for women!

[Wsc04forever]

7 aces, 5 on par 4s, and two other double eagles

not a chance, sorry, im not that stupid

[Swank]

he's gotta be one hell of an iron player..he must suck as a putter though or we would have heard of him.

[blaster6]

I have plenty of friends who would corroborate a phony hole in one story to get free beer. There is no way these aces actually happened.

[Mongo83]

Never seen a hole in one live but i have witnessed a double eagle. It was on number 11, a par 5, at the ridge at castle pines near Denver. A friend of mine holed out from about 270 with a 3 wood. It was in a tournament with our team as witnesses and the team that was leaving the green. Worst part is it erased the three stroke lead my partner and I had on his team with one swing. What are the odds for a double eagle, anyone know?

[Richie3Jack]

A friend of mine had 3 legit hole in ones in a 2 weeks all on legit par 3's...none of which were shorter than 125 yards. He also had an eagle on a legit 440 yard par 4 in during those two weeks. I saw all of them except for one of the hole in ones, which happened as I was teeing off on the hole ahead of him...but it happened in a high school match, so it was completely legit. His last hole in one he spun the ball back and to the left about a good 20 feet. An amazing two weeks of play.




3JACK

[robb01]

wow

[drgolfaholic]

If I'm a member of El Paso GC, I would be a little ticked off. If the guy works there, how does he find all the time to play golf? And now I'm paying for the drinks b/c he got all the aces?

[anders]

was this articel dated 1st April 08??!!!

[fedorsha]

I had FOUR holes in one, in one day,but it was a miniature golf course.

[Tmiller72]

As Bubba The Love Sponge would say, I'm calling shananigans on the deal.

[Marrrk]

the big winner here is El Paso CC, with their name splashed all over the golf world. i think that's worth a few drinks.
it only adds to the suspicion and explains the relative ease which with this could have been hoaxed.

and an employee with hole-in-one insurance? that's a new one to me. granted, i have not been everywhere.

[t1up712]

I used to live in Bloomington, IL about 20 miles south of this course. I have played it many times. If you play the white tees about 6 of the par 4's are drivable still I'm not buying it. I have been playing golf for thirty years and have had a single digit handicap for about the last 20 and I have never had a hole in one and I have only seen 3 it's just not that easy. This is a country course and was semi-private but non-members could play just about anytime. They used to hold a lot of outings there because it was easy and a great place to have fun and drink beer. I haven't played there in about ten years so things may have changed but the scorecard still looks the same.

[iteachgolf]

I have had 3 double eagles in my life and all came in a 10 day period so I guess it's possible, but highly unlikely.

[tjy355]

Here's a link to a more in-depth article:

http://www.pjstar.co...onder-of-it-all

"Because of a number of factors - doglegs, bunkers, ridges - nobody can say they saw a ball go in the hole on any of the par 4s."


Riiiight!

[indruf]

The story is beyond belief. I live just south of El Paso and have followed the story as it unfolded. When I kept seeing the aces reported in our local paper I said BS also......but I know several of the people mentioned in the Peoria Journal Star article and they are honest, no BS people. I spoke to another member close to the action though not a witness who upheld the story. The members there are straight shooters, serious about their golf and don't suffer fools.

The kid can play. He had 63 out there earlier this year.

[Pinehurst1999]

Fore_Man, on Nov 7 2008, 09:58 AM, said:

How common is it for a course to have "insurance" for hole in one drinks? I have heard of it before... but i thought that most places make the lucky golfer pay out of pocket.

Just found out about the policy at my new private course and it is similar and even better. With an ace the clubhouse opens the bar to all present for $300 of free drinks, then the tab is closed. The person with the ace ALSO gets $700 in pro shop credit. We have had about 12 this year so far and they are difficult par 3's. They pay for this not through an insurance but by charging members after the fact. Each ace costs member $2 on their statement, but any member IS allowed to ask to not pay the $2 should it occur. There were 3 in one month this year...so the $2 for each one basically pays for the $700 in credit at the shop and a part of the $300 drinks with the club covering the rest, pretty cool!

[Ty_Webb]

Mongo83, on Nov 7 2008, 12:47 PM, said:

Never seen a hole in one live but i have witnessed a double eagle. It was on number 11, a par 5, at the ridge at castle pines near Denver. A friend of mine holed out from about 270 with a 3 wood. It was in a tournament with our team as witnesses and the team that was leaving the green. Worst part is it erased the three stroke lead my partner and I had on his team with one swing. What are the odds for a double eagle, anyone know?

I think that the odds of making an albatross (double eagle) in a year are around or abouts 300 to 1 for a good player. To make seven in one year would then be about 300^7 to 1, or (I think) 218,700,000,000,000,000 to 1. I heard that there were 56 albatrosses between 1983 and 2003 on the PGA Tour, so at the highest level of the game, roughly 2.7 per year, amongst maybe 200 players per year, or around 1 albatross per player every 75 years. Even if you use 75 to 1, you still get the odds of 7 of them in one year to be 13,348,388,671,875 to 1. This is pretty much directly equivalent to BS.

To put it another way, if you had 10,000,000 players playing regularly at tour level, it would still take them, on average, over a million years for one player to make 7 albatrosses in a year.

[mont86]

Ty_Webb, on Nov 8 2008, 01:30 PM, said:

Mongo83, on Nov 7 2008, 12:47 PM, said:

Never seen a hole in one live but i have witnessed a double eagle. It was on number 11, a par 5, at the ridge at castle pines near Denver. A friend of mine holed out from about 270 with a 3 wood. It was in a tournament with our team as witnesses and the team that was leaving the green. Worst part is it erased the three stroke lead my partner and I had on his team with one swing. What are the odds for a double eagle, anyone know?

I think that the odds of making an albatross (double eagle) in a year are around or abouts 300 to 1 for a good player. To make seven in one year would then be about 300^7 to 1, or (I think) 218,700,000,000,000,000 to 1. I heard that there were 56 albatrosses between 1983 and 2003 on the PGA Tour, so at the highest level of the game, roughly 2.7 per year, amongst maybe 200 players per year, or around 1 albatross per player every 75 years. Even if you use 75 to 1, you still get the odds of 7 of them in one year to be 13,348,388,671,875 to 1. This is pretty much directly equivalent to BS.

To put it another way, if you had 10,000,000 players playing regularly at tour level, it would still take them, on average, over a million years for one player to make 7 albatrosses in a year.

Good post Ty...lol..Thats the way I feel about the story.