Exceptional golf shots are in the news lately. The husband and wife duo of Janet and Tony Blundy recently scored back-to-back aces at the same hole at Meadows Ledge Golf Course, Grand Ledge, Mich. The odds of making an ace are 13,000-to-1; the odds of two aces in the same foursome are purportedly 26 million-to-1; the odds of two spouses scoring aces at the same hole? Off the charts…
Tim Gonsior recently bagged his third double eagle, also known as an albatross, at his home course of Golden Valley Golf & Country Club. The odds? Dean Knuth, the Pope of Slope, a member of the USGA Handicapping Procedure and Handicap Research Committees and a former staffer at the USGA, estimates the odds of a regular golfer making a double eagle at one-million-to-1. Among the reasons that the albatross is more rare than the ace is because most golfers cannot reach most par 5s in two shots.
And an MGA Senior Tour member recently posted three consecutive exceptional net tournament scores, net 60, 62 and 63, resulting in negative net differentials of minus 8.8, 6.6 and 5.9 (a negative net differential is derived when the golfer’s USGA Handicap Index is greater than the handicap differential). The USGA has a probability table (Appendix E, of the USGA Handicap System Manual) which charts the odds of negative net differentials by handicap range. Shooting a net 60 by a 20.1 index is 1,138-to-1 odds.
Posting three exceptional net T scores back-to-back-to-back? Priceless… .