I started golfing casually with my husband’s old set of golf clubs back in 1989 participating in friendly games and tournaments with our family and friends, I never played more than two or three rounds per year. In 2004 I was started playing in corporate events while working as a sales representative, again only an additional two or three rounds a season. In 2016 I purchased my first set of golf clubs so that I could play regularly at our winter residence at River Strand Golf and Country Club in Bradenton Florida. Upon my retirement in 2017 I joined the private golf club that my husband was a member at, York Downs Golf and Country Club in Unionville, Ontario and started playing regularly during the 2018 season. When golfing I am typically very relaxed but a rather fast golfer, I rarely take a practice swing and cruise quickly up the fairways in order to hit my next shot. On the greens I am not very good at reading putts so I typically just aim for the center of the hole and hope for the best result. Generally, I am a very positive person and have a very optimistic view on life. Over the years I joke with my family and friends that on every par three I am going to get a hole-in-one. Everyone would laugh or smirk and my husband would shake his head indicating that sure you are ………………………………… good luck once again. At 4:15pm on Monday January 1st 2024 my wish came true while playing in a foursome with my husband, Stephen Kirkland and our friends, Laurie Gain and her husband Roger Kennedy. We were playing at the River Strand Golf and Country Club, on the Tributary course, on the 5th hole, from the gold tees at 128 yards to the hole. I teed up a water-logged green Titleist “Velocity” golf ball that I pulled from the bottom of my bag so as not to lose one of my better balls into the lake that ran up the entire right side of the hole. The club I used was a TM Aero Burner 4 Rescue. I hit the ball in the air right down the middle to the elevated green and watched the ball climb up onto the front of the green and roll down into a depression that runs horizontally across the center of the green. The ball tracked to the right side of the green and then disappeared. Roger Kennedy then announced that he heard the ball hit the pin, my husband indicated that he did not hear anything so we were all intrigued to find out where the ball ended up. I started walking along the shoreline of the lake with my ball retriever looking for stray golf balls in the lake while my friend, Laurie Gain started walking quickly to the green, curious to discover the final resting place of my tee shot. Laurie arrived at the green and did not see a ball on the green so while walking briskly to the hole she pulled out her mobile phone so she could video my reaction if indeed the ball was in the hole. At this point in time, I picked up my pace and started sprinting to the green while dragging along my pull cart. Laurie peered into the hole and then she threw her hands in the air and screamed “it’s in the hole”. Everyone stated yelling and screaming and jumping around in a circle hugging each other while whooping it up until I finally bent over and pulled the water-logged golf ball out from the hole. Exhilarating is all I can say. We completed the round and headed back to the Clubhouse to report the event to the Pro-Shop staff and have a drink in the Grill Room to celebrate my achievement. Upon our arrival back to the clubhouse we were disappointed that the Pro-Shop had closed, the Grill Room was closed and the Clubhouse Dining Room was closed because it was New Years Day. We packed up our golf equipment and we all headed back to our home and celebrate with a shot of Screwball Peanut Butter Whiskey. That night I woke up at 4:00am in the morning and could not get back to sleep until I researched the odds of getting a hole-in-one. Apparently, the odds for getting a hole-in-one, according to Google are 12,500:1 for an amateur golfer and 2,500:1 for a professional golfer. I guess that I am one of the lucky 1’s!

Diana