Golfer Defies 67 Million to One Odds, Sinks Two Aces in Three Holes

You don’t need to know much about golf to be aware of the fact that a hole in one is just about impossible. Yet, one man not only rose to the occasion, but aced two holes out of three.

Jason Cheng, a 34-year-old senior account executive from Cupertino, CA, was competing in the Coyote Creek Golf Club tournament course in Morgan Hill. He stepped up to the 171-yard second hole, took a swing with his 5-iron — a really, really good swing, at that — and watched his ball hit the flag and then drop right in.

“It was pure joy, lots of hugs,” said Cheng.

Still riding the adrenaline of having made his first ace, the golfer then stepped up to the 152-yard fourth hole, took a swing with his 7-iron, and felt electric excitement wash over him. Though he began playing golf at the age of 10, waiting 24 years to make his first hole in one, he only waited minutes to make his second ace.

“The second one was pure shock,” recalled Cheng. “We were running around the tee box like chickens with our heads cut off. I don’t know where we thought we were going. We were just running.”

As for the hole between the two aces, it was lost on him. Cheng frankly said, “I don’t remember. I don’t remember a thing about hole number three.”

According to Golf Digest, an amateur’s odds of hitting a hole in one are 12,500 to one. The odds of an amateur making two aces in a tournament, however, sky rockets up to one in 67,000,000.

“I’ve never seen this happen in a tournament that we’ve insured in the last 23 years,” says Aleda Nelson of Hole-In-One USA.“However, our President David Nelson was playing the the US Senior Amateur Qualifying at Red Hawk Golf Club in Sparks, NV 3 years ago and one of the other participants in the qualifying made two holes-in-one during the round. There was a pro that made two holes-in-one during the Reno-Tahoe Open at Montreux Golf & Country Club several years ago as well.”

The downside of Cheng’s aces is that they might have hurt his bank account. It’s customary in golf to buy a round of drinks when you make a hole in one. Buy two rounds of drinks for an entire tournament could be downright draining, economically speaking.

As Cheng recalled,”It was scary, because it was a good-sized tournament, about 130 people.”

Luckily, his wallet wasn’t hurt too badly. Only about 10% of the tournament was still around when it came time for him to cough up his round.

And the fact that it was happy hour didn’t hurt either.