[Steve Wilson]

This is the glass half full counterpart to Dan Kelly's thread.

Luck is a two way street in this game, and I have had a lot of good luck on a golf course.  Curiously, I think I've had more good bounces than I have seen my playing partners/opponents have. 

1.  On the 14th at Preston County, a par five, I jerked a nine iron third shot some fifteen yards left of target bound for a bunker.  Disgusted, I flip my club in the air.  About the time the club hits the ground my ball strikes the rise of the bunker next to the green and ricochets across the green and into the hole for an eagle 3.

2.  On the 9th at Bel Meadow in Clarksburg, I am sixty plus yards from the green in a tangled mass of weeds.  Taking my sand wedge, I take a swing worthy of a Wodehousian golfing hero in the hopes of getting back on the fairway.  The ball comes out clean and low, hits the ground in front of the green and, true to the maxim that bullets don't break, continues on a bee line at the flagstick, strikes it about an inch or two above the cup and drops into the hole for a birdie 3.  Dead silence from my friend who is playing with me.  A few holes later in the middle of the back nine he asks, "Do they charge you extra for playing here?"  He has taken me by surprise and mystified I respond, "No, why should they?"  "It must cost them quite a bit to straighten the pins after you're done."

3.  Not long ago I centered an OB stake with the first bounce of a pull hook drive and the ball not only caromed back into play but an additional thirty yards ahead into the prime position in the fairway.

4.  On a Monday following the Memorial Tournament in Columbus, I played Granville, a Ross design.  On the 8th, I holed out a blind  lob wedge for birdie from about forty yards.  Then on the 18th, I sank an 80 yard shot for a two.  It was the most uneven round of golf I ever had.  With five birdies and the eagle on the 18th I failed to break 80, and I didn't make a bogey until either 16 or 17.  Of course the basic math makes it obvious there were several doubles and even a triple in the round to offset all the sub par scores.

So, unless I'm the only to be smiled on by lady luck on the links, let's share some good luck stories which can be just as interesting and funny as the bad luck ones.


 

[Richard Boult]

As the half-full counterpart to Dan Kelly's "Worst luck you've ever seen?" AND "Abe Summer's Is Anyone Ever Truly Happy With A Bogey?" I'll share my BEST BOGIE on the last hole at my home course.

I pulled my drive left and OB, hitting the roof of the only house I've ever hit on this course. My next drive only stayed in bounds by 3 feet.  I then sh?%#@nked a wedge all the way across the fairway into the long fescue mounds on the right side of the fairway. By this time, everyone else had hit onto the green in 2.  My 5th shot landed the green, rolled about 20 feet, then hit another player's ball about 5 feet from the pin and my ball went in for bogie!

My regular weekend golf partner, who never has any luck on the course, calls me the "luck sucker" because I suck all the luck out of the course.

[Jeff_Mingay]

3rd hole at Jasper, a few years ago... playing Rod Whitman for bragging rights!

I pull my tee shot left, and face some 200 yards uphill to the green from the rough. The shot is playing directly into the sun. I make great contact with a 4-iron, but can't see the ball finish.

I walk up to the green... ball's not short. It's not in the bunker behind the green. So, I check the hole...

There it is, in the hole, for eagle 2 

I ended up shooting 75, and Whitman's never heard the end of it 

[Jeff_Brauer]

In one of my first rounds ever, about age 12, my dad took me to a little par 3 Pitch and Putt course near O'Hare airport that was next to a hotel.  (The Flying Carpet, maybe? - It and the golf course are long gone)

I shanked one off the hotel building on to the green a few inches from the hole for my first birdie......it was also damn lucky I missed a window on the shot, as well!

[J Sadowsky]

My first birdie was the first 18 I ever played.  It was a short par 4.  I hit 3 bad shots.  My drive ballooned right, luckily hitting a tree and bouncing down to a half decent lie with a shot at the green.  My second shot was flubbed, landing 10 yards in front of the green.  My chip was WAY too hard (easily off the green, maybe into a forest) but it happened to hit the stupid flagstick and drop.  Just like I planned it.....

[rjsimper]

Uphill par 4, severely uphill to the green. 

High school match, temporary green on the side of the hill short of the green.

Snap hooked 8 iron into the trees, ball spits out up near the real green, trickles about 25 yards down the hill and into the hole on the temp green for a 2.

[Bart Bradley]

I am playing in a 2 man best ball event.

We are paired with two gentleman...one playing well and one struggling mightly...The guy playing well hit into a fairway bunker and then skulls his next shot into the bunker face and then extracts the ball to the fairway.  Inexplicably, he picks up his ball and says to the guy he is playing with "its your hole".

Now the hole we are playing is a medium length par 4 with an approach shot over water to a green with a shaved bank short and left...there is DEEP rough over the green and your ball is on a tremendous downslope if you go over often leading to the short shot that doesn't reach the green or the chip over the green into the pond.  The hole position is far left, the hardest position possible giving your approach about a 8-10 step area to land and stay on the green.

My partner looks at me amazed and says "this guy is going to take a twelve".  He is in the left rough off the tee...so he now has a downhill lie out of deep rough to a tucked pin on a hole where even well struck shots sometimes go into the drink...the pond is marked yellow ...so hitting into the pond requires dropping and replaying the shot.

The guy absolutely skanks the ball out of the rough,  the ball is like a bullet into the pond when the thing hits the fountain in the pond, skips into the stacked stone wall at the edge of the pond and somehow shoots up into the air about 40 feet and lands squarely on the green.  The guy two putts for a par 4....I swear that twelve might have been a low guess if that guy hadn't got that bit of luck.

Bart

[Matt Kardash]

At a par 3 with a lake fronting the green, I once saw a guy hit his shot thin, have his ball skip across the lake, land on the green then take about a 10 foot break on the green and go into the hole.
I'll be surprised if anyone has seen a luckier shot than that!

[Mike Hendren]

I Win.

I apologize for those who've heard the story.  About 20 years ago I played in a two-man scramble with an old friend in his town - flighting after Saturday's round with both weekend rounds counting. 

With a few holes left to play we're on the bubble to make the bottom of the championship flight and on the tee of a 130 yards par three with a front left pin on a severely sloping green.  He whispers to me "we don't need any more birdies - I want you to take this club and aim back right."  He hands me my 8-iron which I typically hit about 145 yards back then.  I'm royally po'd at him but accept the club right in front of the other two players.

I hit a fat pull that one hops into the hole for my only ace.  You should have seen the look on his face - priceless.

Mike

[Kalen Braley]

I'm playing my local track up in Spokane, WA with my main golf buddy....who already complains that I get all the breaks

On the 5th hole there is a boundary fence with a couple of big massive mature trees about 10 yards beyond the fence.  I hit a crappy push slice, so I know its OB as soon as I hit it.  We watch it anyways, and the ball hits right at the base of the tree where the stump splays out before disappearing into the ground.  Sure enough the ball hits right on the perfect spot and bounces back over the fence and in play.   

My buddy never lets me hear the end of it after that when it comes to getting the breaks.   

[Mike Benham]

....who already complains that I get all the breaks

Sounds familiar ....

[Kalen Braley]

....who already complains that I get all the breaks

Sounds familiar ....

Lol....isn't that what a certain Tom H says about you??

[Tim Leahy]

I sliced a drive over a chain link fence into a backyard and the ball landed in an emptied pool and ricocheted over some short trees and back onto the fairway. Luckiest shot I have ever seen or heard.

[Andy Troeger]

I was playing a friendly match and hit my second on a par five into a front greenside bunker. My partner missed the green wide right and chipped to about 3 feet short of the hole and little off to the left from my angle in the bunker. As it wasn't worth waiting for him to get to the green and mark the ball, I played my shot, it hit his ball and bounced in the hole for a 3.

Not being rule "experts" but fairly versed in the rules were were pretty confident that it was a legal 3 and that my partner just had to put the ball back. I chipped in again for eagle on the par five 17th to give us the lead for good, it was a fun day!

[Greg Stebbins]

I just saw this on Monday.

Someone went for a short par 5 in two from an adjacent fairway.  He must have gotten the yardage wrong and flew the green by 30 yards onto a busy street that was OB.  His ball tags a car that must have been going 40mph on the fly and the ball bounced back onto the green about 20 feet from the hole.

The car immediately pulled over.  I was too busy playing the next hole to see what happened between the driver and player. 

[Tim Taylor]

Two weeks ago, playing a B team match against Stoneleigh (for the DC/NoVa crowd). Seventh hole. My partner hits a crappy tee shot that is like 6" away from being in foot high rough. He has about 170 yards to a totally blind target (at least from where he hit his tee shot). Hits it on a good line but it looks fat. I call you "short, in the bunker". I then proceed to push my sand wedge right of the green leaving a brutal down hill chip to a short sided pin. Meanwhile, everyone is looking for Matt's ball. I blade my chip over the green then hit my second past the hole. On my way to mark my ball, I angrily yank the flagstick out, carry off the green and drop it in mock disgust.

What's that? There's a ball sitting on the edge of the hole. Where did that ball come from? Why that's a ProV1x, #7, with an orange dot. Matt had holed his second shot. You should have seen the look on our competitors faces. I think they thought I had dropped one out of my pocket.

We won the whole and went on to win the match 10.5 - 7.5, which is an accomplishment playing away at Stoneleigh.

Tim

[Evan Fleisher]

You may have heard this one from me as part of my Scotland escapades back in 1998.

Playing the Portland Course at Royal Troon with my best friend Greg...match play, no yardage books or caddies, just him and I and the course.

I started the round pretty solid and was a few up on him as we get to the 5th or 6th hole (it is a par-4 with a rail line all the way down the right side).  We hit our tee shots in the fairway, and I pull out a 7-iron for my approach shot, which I proceed to pull badly.  As the ball is sailing OB over the fence I yell out to Greg "That one's gone!"...but as it reaches terra firma we hear a loud "CLANK!"...the friggin' ball hits the actual rail line itself and bounces directly back left and lands pin-high in the rough next to the green.  I chip the ball to a few inches for a tap-in birdie.

Later on in the round I chip in for my third career (and last since then) eagle on a par-5, and hole out a bunker shot on the par-5 18th to shoot a smooth 79 and beat Greg 8 and 7.

What a day...

[Rick Shefchik]

Just out of high school, playing a four-ball match, even going into the 18th hole. I'm on the green within easy two-putt range for a par; one opponent has gone OB, the other hit his second shot way over the green and his ball has come to rest in the rough near a concrete parking lot bumper. You know where this is going...

With one foot on the bumper, our opponent bangs down on the back of his ball and sends a rocket toward the green. It smashes against the flagstick, rebounds at least a foot or two, but still has so much overspin that it rolls forward again and drops into the cup for the match-winning birdie.

[Kirk Gill]

I think I've mentioned this here before, but for what it's worth:

Playing at TOC for the first (and so far only) time, using the oldest shiny-gripped set of rental clubs I've ever seen in my life. I play as a single with three older Scots, one a member of the R&A.

I don't play well, and the member is stuck with me as a teammate. We come to the road hole, and I'm thoroughly disheartened. I can't do anything, but decide to wing away with driver. I both push and slice one of the ugliest drives I ever perpetrated upon the world. It's as if God himself reaches out and grabs the ball, hurling it to the right. It hits the corrugated metal roof of the "shed" and bounds back high in the air to the left, ending up in the right-center of the fairway. Pefect position for a good approach, had I been capable of hitting one.

The R&A member (and my partner in a match against his two friends) told me that in all the years he'd played and watched golf at TOC, he'd never seen anyone do THAT. A little bit of awe, tinged with head-shaking amazement and just a hint of disgust.

[Rich Goodale]

Not sure if this is my "best" anecdote, but it certainly is the more recent.

On Friday I was playing the 22nd hole of my second round of the day of tournament matchplay.  As I (and my opponent) assumed that the pin was still in the same place as it had been the first two times we had been there that day, we both played for the front of the green.  He, playing first, pushed a long iron to the right rough, about pin high.  I tried to force a 9-iron close (to put on the pressure, as I wasn't sure my 61-year old legs could walk much further), but lifted my head and sculled the ball to the back of the huge (20,000+ sq feet) green.  Walking up, however, my spirits lifted as I saw that the green staff had been eager beavers and changed the pin to the Saturday position, only 5 yards from the back of the green (It was 7pm and we were the last match on the course).  My opponent had a nightmare 125 foot chip across a huge ridge in the green, while I had a 10-foot uphill birdie putt.

Memo to self:  Double my annual Chirstmas gift to the green staff..........

[Tom Huckaby]

....who already complains that I get all the breaks

Sounds familiar ....

Lol....isn't that what a certain Tom H says about you??

Not even close.   I get all the breaks MYSELF.  I plan for them.  The golf gods love me and always have.  In fact, I have no good story for this thread because I get good breaks so often they are commonplace and I no longer really notice them.

What you might be thinking of is our common rocket scientist friend Mr. Pieracci, who the golf gods hate as much as they love me.  I've never actually heard him complain about others getting breaks but he gets screwed so often himself, well... he'd have a right to complain.

But as for me... they day I complain about others getting breaks is the day I quit the game.  As for Benham, he's a damn good player he doesn't need any breaks one way or the other, and if he gets any bad ones just recovers from them immediately.

TH

[tlavin]

Hole in one on my birthday in an event at Flossmoor CC (didn't have to buy drinks) a few years back.  This was nearly replicated at Pacific Dunes a few years later when I nearly aced the 10th hole on my birthday with Mike Keiser (also his birthday) and Tom Doak looking on as they walked to the 11th tee.

[Jay Flemma]

this could go down as best and worst.

Standing on 12th tee at Bulls bay...that smarmy smirking, bawdy winking little harlot of a par-3, and I slice my tee ball into the water.

Grumbling and grousing, I go get another ball, slam it to the turf, line up my nine-iron again and

into the hole.

Reaction:  You gotta be flippin' kidding me.

I never felt worse about a par in my life.

[Doug Wright]

This summer's luck (which is as far back as I can remember...):

--Playing with Dan Kelly at Golden Valley and a member I slice a drive on the par 5 6th hole into trees and rough. I have no idea where the fairway is (over a hill). The member casually mentions a stream cutting across the fairway and a yardage. I take out a 7 iron and hit it over the hill generally where I think I'm supposed to go. According to my playing partners, the ball hits and rolls across a narrow bridge over the stream that is angled just for such a shot.

--During a recent round with Wyatt Halliday, he hit a number of trees and rocks. Every time he did so, the ball bounced into playable position and resulted in birdies. I accused him of aiming for said "obstacles" after awhile.

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