Bruce Owens Davis

It was a beautiful saturday afternoon, clear sky, 23 degree c, and a light breeze. I was playing with my usual threesome. We play almost every week together. Kuan-hsi, a walking course in the mountains, is not our home course. And, as is normal in taiwan you are required to have a course caddie. We had caddie number 26, a beautiful asian girl named ms. Huang. We have played the course a few times in the last year. And, I had played the two previous par three's poorly with a quadruple boogie on each. I was second out of the tee box on hole 12, a 187 yard par three, and decide to use my 3 iron, a titleist 690cb. I had tee'd the ball, a wilson tc2 distance number 4 about 1/2 inch above the grass. The greens at kuan-hsi are normally slow and my club selection was based on the need for a little more power (roll) after the ball hit the green. Something I had not done on the past two par three's. From the tee box, the green on hole 12 appeared to be sloping from the middle to both the back and front. The cup was on the back right side of the green and not visible except for the flag. My swing was relaxed. And, the shot looked great, nice altitude, on target and landed just at the creast of the slope. We could not see where the ball had stopped from the tee box. Of my team mates, martin had shot first and was slightly off the left of the green. Edwin, shooting last, was nicely on the green. We could see his ball clearly from the tee. After we had shot, the three of us walked the fairway to the green. Our caddie, ms. Huang had taken the cart path and was first to the green. As edwin and I approached, we could not see my ball. Even though, we both had expected that it should be very close to the cup. As we neared the crest of the green edwin asked where is your ball? I looked and could not see my ball anywhere else on the green. We kept walking and getting closer and several more times edwin said, where is your ball? I said, I don't know. It should be here. There was nothing in the back of the green except flat and open space. At first, I was very disappointed thinking that maybe my ball had rolled off too far and the hole would be the same as the previous two par three's. But, I just couldn't see any possible place for the ball to go that would not have been visible during our approach. Finally, as edwin and I neared the cup, I thought maybe it went in. The caddie at this time was also puzzled that the ball was not on the green and no where in site. Jokily, I said, maybe it went into the cup. As I neared the cup, I looked and to my complete surprise. There it was in the cup! My wilson tc2, number 4 straight up. I was elated at the very least. I smiled, reached in with two fingers of right hand, just as I have seen when one of the pro's made a hole-in-one on tv, withdrew my ball and held it high in the air and lifted my cap with my left hand. The caddie yelled out my named, " bruce," and grabbed her mobile phone to call the club house. I also had to acknowledge my shot with a shout, "hole-in-one! " my team mates were both as shocked as I was. I felt like john daly walking to the eighteenth at his recent win. When you play hard and love the game. Good things will happen. The rest of the game was just a beautiful walk on the course. I went to the next hole, tee'd off thinking golf is a game that can never be won or lost, only played. And today, I had played a great game. It was truly one moment of glory that I will treasure for the rest of my life.