Taya L Mernagh

For Father's Day, my husband and his son were supposed to golf with our neighbour and his son. Unfortunately, my husband had injured his shoulder, so I stepped in and took his place. To make it even more fun, we decided to play a two-man best ball match—our family versus theirs. On the very first hole, my stepson Chris casually asked me if I had ever had a hole-in-one. The night before, another neighbour had been telling us all about his own hole-in-one story. I laughed and told Chris, "No, but I've come really close a few times." Fast forward to the second hole. I hit my tee shot with what felt like a perfect swing. Normally, I come up just short on this hole, but this one looked great right from the start. The ball flew straight toward the green while everyone else's shots missed. Feeling pretty proud of myself, I threw my hands in the air and said, "Yep, boys, look at that shot!" Without even watching it finish, I turned around and headed back to the cart. Meanwhile, the boys were still on the tee box. I could hear them saying, "Great shot... it's on... wait... we lost it in the flagstick shadow... it might be in the hole!" I didn't even bother looking back. There's no way it's actually in the hole, right? We drove up to the green, and I couldn't see my ball anywhere—not near the hole, not on the green, nowhere. Suddenly, my heart started racing. I jumped out of the still-moving cart and ran to the cup. Sure enough... there it was. A hole-in-one. I stood there in complete disbelief. After all these years of golfing and all those "close calls," it finally happened—and on Father's Day of all days! Needless to say, since it was Father's Day and I had just made a hole-in-one, my bar tab afterward was pretty substantial!