3rd ace yesterday!

[LeftDaddy]

A little over 3 years ago I got my first ace after about 20 years of thinking I’ll probably never get one. A little over two years ago I had my second ace. And now, I just got my 3rd ace this weekend!

 

The weather here in the mid-Atlantic has been so crappy. And I’ve been so busy at work and traveling, etc. So I haven’t really played much since December. I think yesterday was my 4th 18 hole round since early December. That said, I’ve been able to make some improvements in the mirror at home that seem to be translating to the course. 

Yesterday, I get to the par 3 17th, 146 yards into a quartering and cold wind. Front pin. I almost always hit 9 iron on this hole, but everything had been coming up a tad short all day. So I grabbed 8 iron and put a good swing on it. I flushed it and as soon as I saw it in the air I said “that is on a really good line”, so I watched it intently the whole way. It landed on the front fringe, bounced once, and I knew it had a really good chance of going in. Sure enough, it rolled toward the hole for what seemed like 5 seconds and just disappeared. I asked my playing partner “wait, that ball disappeared, I think it went in…did you see it go in?”  And he confirmed and said “I don’t see a ball on the green anywhere, that had to have gone in”. We walked to the hole and sure enough, there she was. 
 

Even better, there were only about 10 golfers on the course yesterday, so I probably didn’t even spend $100 on drinks for everyone (some of you may remember that my first ace was quite costly). 
 

But I guess the point of my post is to ask a couple of questions (and I guess to boast a little bit too…sorry about that).  So the ace yesterday was the 3rd of 4 holes at my home course. I asked the club pro if he knew of anyone that had aced all 4 holes in our club’s history and he said he didn’t. I’m curious if any of you have aced all 4 of your course’s par 3s, or know of anyone who has done it?  I’m sure it has been done at plenty of clubs, but I also can’t imagine it is common. And obviously I haven’t done it yet either, and the odds are very high that I never will. But it gives me something crazy to shoot for I guess. I’m aiming at the stick on that other par 3 every day for the rest of my golfing life lol. I’d also be curious how many golfers have 3 or more HIOs. I did some rough calculations and it looks like around 1 in 1000 avid golfers might have accomplished that feat. 

[Hawkeye77]

Brag it up!!! Congrats!!!

 

I am 2/4!
 

In the same golf season. 

[SBH9458]

Congrats!   And I am at a solid 0 for aces, so none on my home course haha

[Swingem]

I've had three. They occurred, for whatever reason, just about 10 years apart at three different golf courses. The first was a stinger (some might say bladed) 5i that must have crashed into the pin as it was trying to get lost in the s*** behind the green. The Second was a pushed 8i that pachinkoed around in a greenside tree before popping out and rolling into the hole. Two HIOs to be sure, but something less than total satisfaction. The third one was textbook, right at the pin, one hop and in. Any lingering doubts regarding HOIs were resolved that day.  

[kwcsports]

Congrats, well done. I've got 2- 1998, 2008, zip since.

[StoutKing]

Congrats!  So hard to make one

[cardoustie]

Congrats

 

stuck on 1 … 45 years of golf 

[LeftDaddy]

Thanks all!

 

 I’ve gone down the rabbit hole now of estimating odds of golfers getting HIOs (I can’t help it…it’s who I am).  It depends a lot on your assumptions about how good someone is and how long they play and how many rounds they can play in a lifetime. All that said, if someone is a decent to good golfer and is able to play a lot in their lifetime, then getting 3 or more HIOs is more like 1 in 25 to 1 in 50…so around 2-4%. It can be even as high as 50% if someone is really good and plays a whole lot. 
 

It will be much more complex to solve the “at least 4 HIOs on the 4 holes at your home course” question…I may take a stab at it for curiosity’s sake.
 

Interesting thought exercise I guess…

[Ghostwedge]

Congrats LeftDaddy, tied with you at 3 aces. First 25 years a few rolled up within inches,  then all 3 in the past 10 years. 2 on one course and one on another. Two 7 irons and one 8 iron from 145-165 yds. And like your latest all 3 of mine landed on the front and rolled up into the ho!e. I witnessed 2 from playing partners over the years before mine. Consider them lucky as I play with scratch and better golfers than me who have never had one. 

 

[LeftDaddy]

Once I thought about it, it wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be to estimate the chances a golfer aces all 4 holes at his or her home course. You just estimate the probability of getting an ace on each one individually and then multiply all 4 probabilities together. I get (again with tons of caveats about assumptions) that the odds are about 1 in a few hundred. And once a golfer has aced 3, with many rounds remaining, it is roughly 10-20% odds that the golfer will ace the remaining one. 
 

That said, there are a ton of assumptions in that. One big one in my case is that the remaining hole is the hardest par 3 on the course by far. So anyway, I’ll say 5-10% odds for me that I eventually get it done. I can’t wait to play the hole now lol. 

[dugue4]

Congrats.  Hope you get another!

[jdl]

Nice job. My first was about 15 years ago and then (as I posted here) I got 2 last year on the same hole about a month apart. Guess I need to spread those out on some of the other holes on that course. It's got 5 par 3s, so would be even tougher to get them all.

[thejazzmarauder]

Congrats. I just got my 2nd at #5 on Pacific Dunes this weekend.

[stryper]

On 3/3/2025 at 4:51 PM, LeftDaddy said:

A little over 3 years ago I got my first ace after about 20 years of thinking I’ll probably never get one. A little over two years ago I had my second ace. And now, I just got my 3rd ace this weekend!

 

The weather here in the mid-Atlantic has been so crappy. And I’ve been so busy at work and traveling, etc. So I haven’t really played much since December. I think yesterday was my 4th 18 hole round since early December. That said, I’ve been able to make some improvements in the mirror at home that seem to be translating to the course. 

Yesterday, I get to the par 3 17th, 146 yards into a quartering and cold wind. Front pin. I almost always hit 9 iron on this hole, but everything had been coming up a tad short all day. So I grabbed 8 iron and put a good swing on it. I flushed it and as soon as I saw it in the air I said “that is on a really good line”, so I watched it intently the whole way. It landed on the front fringe, bounced once, and I knew it had a really good chance of going in. Sure enough, it rolled toward the hole for what seemed like 5 seconds and just disappeared. I asked my playing partner “wait, that ball disappeared, I think it went in…did you see it go in?”  And he confirmed and said “I don’t see a ball on the green anywhere, that had to have gone in”. We walked to the hole and sure enough, there she was. 
 

Even better, there were only about 10 golfers on the course yesterday, so I probably didn’t even spend $100 on drinks for everyone (some of you may remember that my first ace was quite costly). 
 

But I guess the point of my post is to ask a couple of questions (and I guess to boast a little bit too…sorry about that).  So the ace yesterday was the 3rd of 4 holes at my home course. I asked the club pro if he knew of anyone that had aced all 4 holes in our club’s history and he said he didn’t. I’m curious if any of you have aced all 4 of your course’s par 3s, or know of anyone who has done it?  I’m sure it has been done at plenty of clubs, but I also can’t imagine it is common. And obviously I haven’t done it yet either, and the odds are very high that I never will. But it gives me something crazy to shoot for I guess. I’m aiming at the stick on that other par 3 every day for the rest of my golfing life lol. I’d also be curious how many golfers have 3 or more HIOs. I did some rough calculations and it looks like around 1 in 1000 avid golfers might have accomplished that feat. 

We have five par 3’s on my course, I’ve gotten two of them, been inches away on the others.  A friend of mine has all five…I hate that guy. 😉

[Ferguson]

Congratulations. 

 

I am still without one.  

 

[TheDeanAbides]

Congrats! I've never had one despite hitting the pin a few times and sticking it to a few inches a few times too. Holed several from the fairway, but one of my goals for when I'm able to play again is to knock one of these badboys in. 

 

You've given me hope that there's still time!

[pgabroc]

Congrats!

[LeftDaddy]

On 3/10/2025 at 8:29 AM, TheDeanAbides said:

Congrats! I've never had one despite hitting the pin a few times and sticking it to a few inches a few times too. Holed several from the fairway, but one of my goals for when I'm able to play again is to knock one of these badboys in. 

 

You've given me hope that there's still time!

I had gone about 20 years and just figured it would never happen. Crazy to think that I’ve now had 3 in under 4 years. 
 

Your time is coming!

[St Jimmy]

Congrats!  I'm still without one and haven't really come close in years. 

[TheDeanAbides]

9 hours ago, LeftDaddy said:

I had gone about 20 years and just figured it would never happen. Crazy to think that I’ve now had 3 in under 4 years. 
 

Your time is coming!

Unlikely. I doubt I'll ever play again, unfortunately. 

[LBB]

Here I am with zero HOIs thinking that making 3 consecutive birdies for the first time in my life last week was pretty cool and wondering if I can someday make 4 in a row.  LOL.

[golferdude54]

[elwhippy]

Well done sir. I almost slam dunked a tee shot on our 13th. Close but.....I hope your partners bought you a beer.

[stephenmatt]

Congratulations!

[LeftDaddy]

On 3/14/2025 at 3:41 AM, TheDeanAbides said:

Unlikely. I doubt I'll ever play again, unfortunately. 

I’m sorry to hear that. Best wishes to you. 

[LeftDaddy]

On 3/16/2025 at 4:01 PM, elwhippy said:

Well done sir. I almost slam dunked a tee shot on our 13th. Close but.....I hope your partners bought you a beer.

The beer-buying was all done by me. These HIOs can get costly (though this one wasn’t bad at all). 

[Yanki01]

30yrs of golfing. zero 😒

[kwcsports]

Congrats, well done.

[Mych]

I'm still stuck on zero, and for about 6 months I played a par-3 course 3-4 times per week, so I had 9 chances (sometimes 18) every time I played. Still haven't found favor with the golf gods. I keep telling myself that the golf gods are saving mine for the "win a car" hole at a charity tournament, so I haven't given up hope yet.

Edited March 31 by Mych

[RoyalMustang]

Congrats! I'll never probably get one. I've holed a perfect 9-iron with backspin from 155, but never even sniffed an ace to my knowledge. It doesn't help that the shortest Par 3 on my course plays close to 180.