Alphonso Samano

Hole 16 at Raccoon Hill is a short Par 4 with a sharp dogleg to the right. A dense line of trees completely blocks the green from the tee box, so going for it means hitting totally blind. I took my driver and tried to cut the corner. Right after contact, we heard people shouting in the distance. We figured we gave the group ahead of us a scare, or maybe someone made a big putt on a neighboring hole. We walked up to the green and could not find my ball anywhere. My buddy jokingly walked over to check the cup, and the ball was sitting right at the bottom. When we caught up to the group ahead at the next tee, they filled in what actually happened. They were standing near the green when my ball cleared the tree line, slammed directly into the front bunker lip to kill its momentum, and trickled straight into the hole.