Two Sask. golfers hit a hole-in-one on the same day, at the same course

Some golfers go a lifetime without making a coveted hole-in-one, but one 16-year-old has already done it twice.

Grady McDougall said he made his first ace at a tournament in Waskesiu when he was 14. He made the second one last week, this time on a par four.

“I had three of my buddies golfing with me and we were all pretty excited,” he said.

It started out like any other round for the 16-year-old, until he tee’d off at hole six.

“Huge hill in the middle of the hole, you can’t see the green whatsoever, so I hit first, we thought maybe the left side of the green,” he said.

McDougall said he got upset when looking for the ball because he thought he missed the green.

“I don’t know, out of the odd chance it was in, I went and checked the hole and it was there, so it was pretty awesome,” he said.

McDougall made the lucky 320-yard shot on Prince Albert’s Cooke Municipal Golf Course.

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He had a one in six million chance of making the hole-in-one on a par four, something that’s only been done once on the PGA tour, according to PGA of America.

But he wasn’t the only one celebrating the accomplishment last Wednesday, his former gym teacher also made an ace on the same day, at the same course.

“I couldn’t see the ball go in the hole, it was kind of a raised green on hole 17. We saw it tracking towards the hole, but when it went in we didn’t see it, so then we got in the carts and ripped up to the top of the hole and we saw it from there, and it was pretty exciting,” Reed Whitrow, 28, said.

Cooke’s assistant professional Drew Ryhorchuk said having two holes-in-one on the same day is rare and the course marked the occasion.

“With the hole-in-ones, Reed and Grady, they both got a little medallion from us here,” he said.

The average age to make a hole-in-one is 55, according to the National Hole-in-One Registry.

McDougall is almost four decades below that average. He hopes to compete at the collegiate level one day.

“I have a golf coach in Swift Current. We’ve been looking at trying to get into some colleges, but I don’t really know where it’s going to go in the future, all I can do is really hope,” McDougall said.

Meanwhile, both McDougall and Whitrow said they’re honoured to share this rare achievement.

“I was pretty excited for him, to share that day with him,” McDougall said.

“I was excited for him and it was a pretty cool day,” Whitrow said.