Father and son record holes-in-one on same hole during same Father’s Day round
Lonnie Whitener has played plenty of rounds of golf over the years, some of them on Father’s Day. He’s also played plenty of rounds alongside his son, 13-year-old Zach Whitener.
By sheer availability, those two sets of circumstances haven’t coincided too often, but they did on Sunday, when the Whiteners decided to celebrate Dad’s day on the golf course. What resulted was sheer magic.
As reported by the Houston Chronicle, Associated Press and a handful of other outlets, both Whiteners recorded holes-in-one in the same round, on the same hole (the par-3 6th hole) at River Pointe Golf Club in Richmond, Texas. The pair chose to play at that course simply because Zach Whitener likes to see alligators that sometimes slink near the course, just on the edge of view.
The elder Whitener teed off from 115 yards away and scored an ace. His son shot from 100 yard and earned the same result.
"It's probably going to be the most memorable thing we accomplish together," Lonnie Whitener told the Chronicle. "I just hope we have a lot more good things to come. It's one of the coolest things you could ever do."
One of the coolest things, and rarest things statistically. The Chronicle consulted with the National Hole in One Registry, which attempts tracks all aces nationwide, and learned that the odds of two players in any one foursome hitting a hole-in-one on the same hole during the same round are approximately 1 in 17 million.
What makes those odds appear even longer are the Whiteners’ relative lack of golf acumen. The elder Whitemen began golfing 13 years ago and aims to play once a week but still holds a handicap in the 15 to 20-stroke range. His son plays only once a month.
That was all but irrelevant to former University of Texas golfer Lance Lopez, now a PGA of America golf professional, who witnessed both hole in ones go in on top of each other.
"We were speechless," Lopez said. "It was like, 'Did that really just happen?' "
It’s likely that Lopez wasn’t the last person to be left speechless by the Whitener’s remarkable stroke of luck, which will make them golf legends whenever they take to the course.
"This was something else,” Lonnie Whitener told the Chronicle. “We'll remember this forever. Now I can tell anyone, 'Give me your best golf story, and I'll one-up you.' "
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