EYES ON THE PIN: Starley aces par 4 at The Club
Oct. 16—Best friends Chad Starley and Shane Robbins discuss it after every round of golf they play.
"We're going to get that hole-in-one one of these days," they say while enjoying a cold beverage.
"One of these days" turned out to be last Tuesday in the most unlikely of places, The Club at Lake Sinclair's par 4 hole No. 1.
Starley, a teacher and two-time defending state champion head baseball coach at John Milledge Academy, stepped into the teebox and let his driver rip looking to get close on the 312-yard hole. The ball left the club face with all the accuracy Starley threw a baseball with when he was a JMA pitcher back in the mid-90s.
"When I hit it, the ball looked like it had eyes on the pin," the 46-year-old Starley said. "It never went right or left. It stayed exactly in line with the pin. I saw it hit the front of the pin and then it disappeared."
Tough to confirm from over 300 yards out, so Robbins pulled out his rangefinder to get a closer look.
"There's not a ball on the green," Robbins reported to the foursome that included Bill and David Dyer.
"We got in our carts and just flew to the green," Starley went on. "We didn't even look at the other balls. I saw the ball mark about 6 feet in front of the pin and said there's no way it's not in. We slowly crept up like it was Christmas and there it was. We just went nuts."
At around 6:14 p.m. on Oct. 10, Starley had his first hole-in-one in 34 years of playing golf, a sport he picked up at the age of 12. He said he's come close on par 3s several times, and has driven the The Club's No. 1 green twice before. One of those instances turned into an eagle from 30 feet out just two weeks prior to the ace. Ten weeks prior, Starley on another hole had an extremely rare albatross, which is when a golfer finishes a par 5 with just two strokes.
Starley's hole-in-one is thought to be The Club at Lake Sinclair's first on a par 4 in the course's 60-plus year history.
With his luck seemingly at an all-time high and the lottery jackpot up over $1 billion, Starley knew what to do next.
"Needless to say I did buy a lottery ticket," he said, "but it didn't hit."
So rather than purchasing The Club at Lake Sinclair, Starley will be right back on the course as a player Tuesday looking to add another elusive ace. After getting one on a par 4, holing out on a par 3 ought to be easy now, right?
