So back in September of this year, I had a business trip to Chicago and was supposed to be playing golf with some folks in the area, and the golf plans blew up at the last minute. So I checked with Sand Valley to see if they could accommodate a single, which they could, rented a car and drove up prior to the business stuff in Chicago. Had it all lined up to play Lido, Sand Valley, and Mammoth Dunes in a 2 day marathon.

At Sand Valley, I got paired with a father and son twosome that I also happened to be paired with the following day at Mammoth Dunes. They were a great pairing. The dad was a good player, and the son was a relatively new golfer but decent for his time in the game.

Fast forward to the 16th at Mammoth Dunes, which was the last round of the trip. The caddie gave us instructions to a semi blind 125 yd shot to fire at a specific tree with about a 120 carry as the ball would kick down to the hole. I hit a good shot, the dad hit a good shot, and the son hit one left of the specified tree that we could see kick directly to the hole. The caddie, nicknamed Palmer, said "we will have 3 nice birdie looks here" and started walking up to the green. As he approached the green he turned around and said "boys, there are only 2 balls on the green". After having seen what I did, I immediately started thinking about how cool it was that I was with them as a son made his first ace with his dad in the group. I got out my phone to get pics for them and walked up to the hole to see my Pro V1 in the bottom of the cup. I was speechless for several minutes and was in a haze mentally. I also ended up making birdie on 17 and 18 to finish level par for the day.

My 3rd ace, but first in 23 years. Needless to say, I can't wait to go back to Sand Valley.....