Heaven in the Cup

Every golfer knows that when he gets to heaven he will boom his way around St. Peter's Royal and Ancient Golf Club in 18 magnificently perfect strokes. While he's waiting, though, he'll happily settle for a little bit of heaven on earth: a hole in one.

He'll probably get it too. Something like 300,000 U.S. golfers already have holes in one to their credit, and no fewer than 11,774 new aces were recorded in 1964 alone. The odds against just any amateur's getting one are computed at 6,000 to 1. But the lightning can strike willy-nilly. Last year's initiates included an 84-year-old retired businessman from California (No. 8 iron, 110-yd. hole), a nine-year-old Little Leaguer from North Carolina (No. 3 iron, 157-yd. hole), and a Texas housewife who was eight months pregnant when she dubbed a No. 6-iron shot into the cup on a 125-yd. hole.

For Wheaties & Rolls. The ace of aces was Norman Manley, a long-hitting four-handicapper from Inglewood, Calif., who scored three in a month--all on par-four holes, of 330, 330 and 290 yds. Then there was Harry Poli, 56, who plays with a putter exclusively and holed out his 150-yd. tee shot last June at the Salem, Mass., Municipal Golf Course. At Mission Hills Golf Club in Northbrook, Ill., members are still shaking their heads over the golfer who topped his drive on the 15th tee and rolled it into the cup, 175 yds. away.

That plunk in the cup just starts the fun. First, the lucky golfer has to buy drinks for everybody in the clubhouse. (If he has been thoughtful enough to buy hole-in-one insurance at $2 a year, the insurance company will pick up the tab.) The newspapers run the story; gifts start arriving in the mail. In the old days, it was a case of Wheaties or a carton of Life Savers. Nowadays there are certificates, medals, highball glasses, ashtrays, barometers. The earth-shaking event is duly recorded by Golf Digest, which gives away clothes and golfing trips to the winners of its annual Hole-in-One Sweepstakes. Last summer Harrah's Club at Lake Tahoe, Nev., ran its own hole-in-one contest, and the winner had his choice of three prizes: a Rolls-Royce, a Ferrari, or "His and Hers" Jaguars. Al Reale, a restaurant owner from San Leandro, Calif., was the winner; he chose the Rolls. The U.S. Golf Association warned Reale that he would lose his amateur status if he took the car. That Al's no amateur.

Beyond Belief. When a pro aces, it's kind of ho-hum. The world-record holder of holes in one, Art Wall has 35 aces to his credit after 16 years on the tour--and has yet to make a dime out of any of them. "I don't even talk about it," he says morosely. Neither does Jerry Krueger, a California pro, who got his fourth in last week's Bob Hope Desert Classic. The trouble was that he shot it on the seventh hole in the third round. The Chrysler people were offering a convertible to anybody who scored an ace, but it had to come on the 17th hole in the fifth round--in front of the TV cameras. At that point, poor Jerry wasn't even around to take a swing at it; he had missed the cut. Jerry Barber put one in for the cameras at the 1962 Buick Open, and won himself a new Buick, then cagily asked if he could please wait until the new models came out before picking up his prize.

All told, there have been 82 aces on the pro tour in the last five years, which means that the odds on some golfer's holing out his tee shot in any P.G.A. tournament are only about 2 1/2 to 1. Lloyd's of London should have looked up the odds when they insured a $50,000 hole-in-one prize for the Palm Springs Golf Classic. In 1960, the tournament sponsors paid a premium of $4,500, and Joe Campbell scored an ace. In 1961, Lloyd's hiked it to $13,500, and Don January scored a hole in one. In 1962, the rate soared to $18,800, and Dick Mayer took home the bacon. Finally, with Lloyd's out $113,200 and the tournament sponsors out $36,800 in premiums, the whole thing was called off. Not that Lloyd's was chicken, of course: if they can figure out some new ground rules, they may try again next year.

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