Ernie Anderson (left) and Mike Andrist scored back to back holes in one on the 158-yard, No. 13 hole at Forest Ridge golf course in Broken Arrow on Saturday. COURTESY
Ernie Anderson, 63, made his seventh hole-in-one Saturday morning at Broken Arrow’s Forest Ridge Golf Club. But that wasn’t the source of his excitement.
About 30 seconds later, his groupmate Mike Andrist landed a hole-in-one, too.
“The odds of back to back guys having hole-in-ones in the same group is astronomical,” Anderson said.
According to the National Hole-In-One Registry, the odds of two players from the same foursome acing the same hole is 17 million to 1.
“That’s the part I can’t believe at all,” said Andrist, 57, whose hole-in-one on Saturday was his fifth.
“But you see all kinds of weird stuff in golf, and some of it’s good,” he said.
The golfers made the holes-in-one at the 158-yard, No. 13 hole.
The group didn’t realize just how strange it was, though, until they went over to the hole to be sure both landed inside.
Although they were pretty certain that Andrist’s ball had landed in the hole, they couldn’t quite see Anderson’s.
“It was a little tough because the tin was in the shade of the tree,” Anderson said. “When they realized what had happened and told Forest Ridge Golf Club officials, the club sent out an alert through its golf cart GPS system to tell other golfers about the feat.
“We had people come from other holes come over and congratulate us,” Anderson said.
Anderson joked that their other groupmates were witnesses.
“One of them is a preacher, and he said, ‘(People) probably wouldn’t believe it if you guys didn’t have a preacher in the group,’” Anderson said.
Anderson and Andrist received trophies from the club.
Forest Ridge Golf Club also sent an email about the feat to the Golf Channel, club officials said.
Both golfers say they’ve never seen this happen before, and they’ve each been golfing for more than 40 years.
Andrist said the whole experience was just exciting.
“Even if it wouldn’t have been me, if I’d got to seen it, it woulda been neat,” he said.
Both acknowledge that they were probably having a lucky day. But they say that skill comes in to play, too.
“You start hitting good shots, and once in a while they’ll go in,” Andrist said.
Other - Golf
Zach Johnson is having a September to remember, and there's still one very big week to go.
At Conway Farms Golf Club, Lake Forest, Ill
