Golfers at Reynolds Lake Oconee are apparently ready to pick up right where they left off last year, as John Rosensteel beat 67 million-to-1 odds by making two holes-in-one during the same round at The Creek Club. His feat, remarkable on its own merit, is only the latest in a line of “Amazing Aces” that began last fall at Reynolds Lake Oconee.
“It took a while to sink in,” said Rosensteel, a retired insurance executive with a 7.5 index and five previous aces. “I thought, ‘This can’t be real.’”
Playing with the regular group of foursomes that plays each Friday at The Creek Club, Rosensteel first aced the seventh hole, with a 7-iron from 140 yards. “It was the second hole we played, because of the shotgun start. I hit a good shot and it was nice because we all got to see it go in.”
On the uphill 17th, playing 170 yards, Rosensteel figured he was in the front bunker when the group reach the green and did not see his ball. “I was walking back when one of the guys said, ‘I found it.’ I couldn’t believe it was in the hole.”
What is even harder to believe is that Rosensteel is the second Reynolds Lake Oconee member to make two aces in the same round since September, when Roger Erickson aced two of the par 3s at The Landing – No. 3, using a pitching wedge from 105 yards, and No. 11, using a 5-wood from 155 yards.
But Erickson seems to have only got the ball rolling …
Playing together in November, Rebecca Rocker and Linda Fox made aces in the same round at Great Waters –Rocker on the 14th, with a 9 iron from 109 yards, and Fox on the 17th with a 9 iron from 90 yards, about 30 minutes apart. The odds of that happening are listed at 32,000-to-1.
Then on Dec. 7 there were the “Two Aces & A Deuce” in the same group, when Tren Watson and Donny Jackson each made a hole-in-one on the par-3 13th hole at The Creek Club. Beating the odds of 17 million-to-1, Watson made his ace using a 7-iron; Jackson holed out on top of Watson’s ball, using a 5-iron. The other member of their threesome, Robert Huber, hit to three feet and made a birdie. Total strokes for the trio on the hole: 4.
“We looked at each other and said, ‘Nobody is ever going to believe it.’” Watson said.
Watson and Jackson are cousins who grew up in Dublin, Ga., and like Huber have been residents and members of Reynolds Lake Oconee since the early 1990s. Watson carries a 6.1 index, while Huber is a 4.0 and Jackson a 9.0. All three are age 64.
“When we tell people about it, particularly other golfers, they say, ‘You’ve got to be kidding,’” Watson says. “But we all saw them go in.”
And from the way 2013 has started at Reynolds Lake Oconee, it looks like they will keep going in.
