General

June 16, 1989: Four Aces at Oak Hill

Jun 16, 2009, 5:57 PM UTC

With the 2009 U.S. Open almost upon us, allow me to take you back 20 years to the day and the second round of the 1989 Open at Oak Hill Country Club in Rochester, New York, and two of the craziest hours this fabled tournament has ever seen before or since.â†µ

â†µâ†µ

â†µâ†µIt all started at about 8:15 in the morning, when Doug Weaver stood on the tee at the par 3 sixth hole sizing up a seven-iron drive to the green. He lofted it about 20 feet past the cup, and given the dramatic backslope to the green, the ball poured back towards the pin and then, wonder of wonders, right into the cup. Hole in one. Always a thrill at a major, and an unlikely one at that. According to records, at that point only seventeen total holes-in-one had been shot in the 88 prior U.S. Opens combined. When you consider the number of par 3’s that had been played over that time period you begin to see just how rare a feat it is to notch an ace at the Open.â†µ

â†µâ†µWeaver’s ace, however, was only the beginning. About an hour later, Mark Wiebe strutted up to the sixth tee, also wielding a seven-iron. And like Weaver, he nailed it, an eagle one off the tee. Skip forward another half an hour to the arrival of Jerry Pate, 1976 U.S. Open champion, at the sixth tee. Why not try a seven-iron, Mr. Pate, it’s been working well for the other lads. Don’t mind if I do and ... BINGO! Ace number three.â†µ

â†µ

â†µAt that point, it was already utterly ridiculous what was going on, and then, in the very next threesome to arrive at the sixth, Nick Price made it positively ridonkulous, grabbing a seven-iron and draining another hole-in-one about 15 minutes after Pate, and about an hour and fifty minutes after Weaver. â†µ

â†µâ†µFour holes-in-one in under two hours. The mind boggles at the odds of something like that happening. In this article from the New York Times, the odds of any four golfers acing the same hole on the same day were calculated at 332,000-to-1. And those odds apply to any four golfers on any old crap course anywhere. We’re talking about the U.S. Open here, the most infamously difficult professional golf tournament in the world, and we’re talking four aces on the same hole in the space of two hours! All with the same damn club! â†µ

â†µâ†µClearly, the gods were having a bit of fun with us mere mortals on that freaky Friday 20 years ago. It’s the kind of thing so astronomically improbable that the odds of it happening again are incalculable by modern science. I’ve been around the block enough times to know that the one true golden rule of life is “never say never,” and yet I feel entirely confident in making the bold pronouncement that four aces on the same hole with the same club all within two hours of each other at the U.S. Open is a feat that never will be repeated. â†µ

â†µ

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.

See More: