Williams Ties Record With Fourth Hole-in-One in 12 Months

Minnesota

By Nick Hunter
nick@mngolf.org


The odds of making a hole-in-one for the typical amateur golfer is approximately 12,500 to one and considered a once-in-a-lifetime experience, while many may not have the pleasure at all. Over the past 12 months, however, they have become routine for Brenda Williams—and her family.

Williams has long been considered one of the state’s best female golfers, notching 15 amateur victories since 1998. She’s has earned trips to 15 USGA events and captained the team from Minnesota at the 2013 U.S. Women’s State Team Championship.

But as impressive as her resume is, her past year has been simply unbelievable. At 58, Williams has six holes-in-one to her credit, four of those coming within the last 12 months.

“What’s weird is before these last four, my first two were 15 years prior,” Williams said after qualifying for the 2017 U.S. Senior Women’s Amateur Championship in St. Paul on Wednesday. “My first was about a month before my dad died and the next was a couple weeks after he died. To have four this quickly is crazy.

“The National Hole-in-One Registry told me that this tied the national record and may have broken it—four within a one-year period on four different courses.”

Williams recorded her first two in 2001 before playing in an event at Windsong Farm last August.

“It was a Family Day and my son Riley said, ‘Okay mom, hit it close,’ but I had a good round going and wasn’t going to go for it. I stepped away from the ball and said, ‘Okay, this is for the team,’” Williams recalled.

Hesitating after shooting 2-under on her front nine at 2-under, Williams stepped up to the 135-yard 10th hole and hit a 6-hybrid. She said her shot came off the club beautifully, sailed over the bunker and rolled up and in.

“The best part of the whole thing was seeing how excited he was—he was going crazy,” Williams said. “That was pretty fun to do that with them.”

At her winter home in Arizona in January, nearly five months since her previous ace, Williams struck again with an 8-iron on the 116-yard seventh hole while playing the Cochise Course at Desert Mountain in Scottsdale, Ariz.

“I was playing league at Desert Mountain and with a couple friends and had just got my new PXG irons—I had them for seven days and they say on the seventh day greatness was created.”

Williams’ fifth came two months later in March on the Outlaw Course at Desert Mountain while she was playing the first round of the club championship. Reeling after a poor 11th hole, Williams took out her 5-hybrid at the 155-yard 12th hole.

“I had just doubled the hole prior and said I needed some luck. I got up to the hole and I was watching in track perfectly and it went in the hole,” Williams said. “The woman I was playing with almost had one on top of it—probably eight inches away.”

The odds of that happening are 17 million to one, according to Golf Digest.

“I was overwhelmed at that point having three [within eight months],” she said.

Not to be outdone by his mother, Riley Williams recorded his own ace 30 days later at the Cochise Course at Desert Mountain, using a 4-iron at the 205-yard 17th hole.

“[Riley] had one in April, so they’re checking if that’s a record to have five within a year in an immediate family,” she said.

Williams’ most recent ace came on July 24 during the opening round of the 2017 Minnesota Golf Association Women’s Amateur Championship at Northland Country Club in Duluth, Minn. Starting her first round on the 10th tee, Williams hit another 5-hybrid from 149 yards at the par-3 17th.

“I was playing with Taylor Ledwein and Samantha Stone and after they both hit nice shots I asked if we could play a scramble. When I hit my shot, it looked good and it was rolling closer and I heard Taylor’s dad say, ‘Go in, go in—my God in went in!’”

“After we high-fived, they said we could definitely play a scramble.”

The National Hole-in-One Registry reports approximately 128,000 aces are recorded each year and of those who’ve previously made one, only 14 percent will do it again and nine percent will make three or more.

The odds of making four within 12 months? Unheard of.

“Having four is beyond belief,” Williams said. “My [third] one was fun because I was playing with my family and that was really exciting. The next was fun because I was playing with good friends and playing in an event, which took a lot of pressure off, especially the club championship. I thought, ‘Nothing matters now.’ Then I ended up winning the club championship.

“I’m in disbelief about it still. People are coming up to me, hearing about it and telling me stories about how their grandpa played for 70 years and never had one.”

According to the National Hole-in-One Association, the longest ace recorded by a woman came in 1949 when Marie Robie knocked in her tee shot from 393 yards. A 3-year-old Jack Paine became the youngest to record the feat in 2001 from 65 yards, while Gus Andreone is the oldest, sinking his 113-yard tee shot at 103-years-young in 2014.

Tiger Woods’ first hole-in-one came at the age of six and Michelle Wie was 12 when she did it. In 2002 Mike Crean recorded the longest ace at the 517-yard par-5 ninth hole at Green Valley Ranch in Denver, Colo.