Golf Notes: Accomplishments and awards from the golf course
Green Meadows Golf Course is celebrating its 50th anniversary this summer.
A couple of golfers celebrated with a special milestone.
In the first 49 years at Green Meadows, no one had hit a hole-in-one on the No. 14 hole, which measures more than 300 yards.
Drew Leach became the first in late June, and then Ryan Chesney recently joined the very exclusive club.
More: Baseball player Drew Leach chases away pain with historic hole-in-one
More: Two golfers beat the odds by shooting an albatross at Dundee
“I still can’t believe it to be honest with you,” Chesney said.
Chesney hit the ace while competing for Tenneco in the Monroe Corporate Cup.
“I literally just got up and hit my driver,” he said. “It went right down the middle. I thought it was on the green at first, then I thought it went over.
“But I didn’t see it on the green. My buddy Brad Fichtner walked up and said, ‘Dude, it’s in the hole.’”
There was a direct witness to the accomplishment.
“A cart kid at the course said he saw it roll in but didn’t want to ruin the occasion for us,” Chesney said. “He wanted to see how we would react.”
It was the second career hole-in-one for Chesney, who carded his first about five years ago.
He was golfing more regularly back then.
“I used to play a lot, but not anymore with kids and sports,” said Chesney, who celebrated his 40th birthday in March. “I’ve probably been out 10 times this summer.”
Playing less hasn’t seemed to hurt his game much.
“It’s like riding a bike,” he said. “Every time I go out, it comes back to me.”
Still, a hole-in-one on a 300-plus-yard hole is pretty amazing.
“It checked two boxes – a hole-in-one and an albatross,” he said. “I’ve never had one of those before. I probably should have bought some lottery tickets.”
Stone wins award
Sarah Stone, a 1997 Airport High School graduate, has been chosen as one of the Top 100 Teachers by Golf.com.
Stone, 44, has been teaching golf since graduating from Ferris State University in 2001.
She is currently the Director of Instruction at Chevy Chase Club in Chevy Chase, Maryland. She has been there since 2021 after previous stops in New York and Florida.
“This is something that’s been way out on my goals list,” she said. “It’s pretty exciting because it’s an honor from my peers.”
First ace at age of 75
Peter Carlton has been a regular at Monroe Golf & Country Club since he was 5 years old.
“Our parents belonged to the Country Club when we first got here,” he said. “My brother and sister and I all went out to swim and play golf. Now we are all good golfers and good swimmers.”
The 75-year-old recently proved he is a good golfer by hitting his first hole-in-one, acing the 180-yard No. 13 hole with a 5 hybrid.
“Oh my gosh, I was excited,” he said. “It seems like everyone I play with has one or two. One guy has six and another has four. It was just my turn.”
The pin position kept him from seeing the ace.
“On that hole, when the pin is down below, there is like a like hump and you can’t see the bottom of the pin,” he said. “It looked like a good shot. I knew it was down in the bowl, but we didn’t see it. We looked all over. We didn’t expect to find it in the hole.”
Hole-in-one in tourney
Colleen (MacDonald) Marone of Macomb, 39, recorded her first hole-in-one, on the 162-yard, No. 17 hole at Carrington Golf Club.
She used a 5-wood to log the ace in Devin Kachar Fundraiser Event with her family.
“It couldn’t have been any better,” she said. “Beautiful day, surrounded by my family, at a great benefit.”
Ace for Wilcik
Phil Wilcik used a gap wedge to shoot a hole-in-one Friday at Giant Oak Golf Club on the 98-yard No. 17 hole.
This article originally appeared on The Monroe News: Golf Notes: Accomplishments and awards from the golf course
