A hole-in-one is a great feat for any golfer.
But what if you have two people who are golfing together sink an ace on the same day at the same hole? The odds of that happening are 17 million-to-one.
And yet, that’s exactly what happened to Shawn Brown and Trevor Fackrell on June 26 at the Galt Country Club in Cambridge, Ont.
The two were golfing as part of a foursome on the mild and overcast day and were on the downhill, par-three 14th hole.
“Beautiful little hole with a rock face to the right of the green,” Fackrell recalls.
Fackrell, a left-hander, got the first hole-in-one.
“It was a perfect eight iron for me and I just stood up and hit it pure and it landed about six feet short of the hole, took one little hop and just jumped into the hole and it was incredible,” he said.
Brown congratulated Fackrell, then the right-hander stepped up to tee off.
“You’re just coming down off of the excitement. Obviously, you don’t get to witness these things very often,” he said.
“Then all of a sudden, two swings later, I knock it in on top of Trev.”
Fackrell says he remembers jumping up and “bear-hugged Shawn and he bear-hugged me right back.”
Golfing buddies both sink a hole-in-one on same day, same hole at Galt Country Club
Brown and Fackrell are no strangers to a round of golf. Brown has about five holes-in-one under his belt while Fackrell has six.
Fackrell is also the former head golf professional at Burlington Golf and Country Club, a golf professional with Professional Golfers’ Association (PGA) of Canada and past president of PGA of Ontario.
The two met last year when they golfed with friends Dave Smallwood and Shawn McGeachy and things did not go nearly as smoothly.
“I actually hit [McGeachy] with my golf ball. I shanked a shot on number 11,” Fackrell said.
“I hit him right square in the back with a chip shot. So I was looking forward to redeeming myself.”
This time around, after confirming with witnesses that the feat had been accomplished, the Galt Country Club posted about it on their social media feeds and the story was highlighted on the PGA of America website.
In a story on the PGA of America website, it notes that data compiled by the National Hole-in-One Registry shows that the odds of an average amateur making a hole-in-one are roughly 12,000-to-one.
The odds of two golfers in the same group hitting a hole-in-one on the same day: 6.5 million-to-one.
The odds of two golfers in the same group hitting a hole-in-one at the same hole on the same day: 17 million-to-one.
It’s tradition for someone who gets a hole-in-one to buy a round of drinks for people in the clubhouse.
Brown and Fackrell celebrated the feat that night in the clubhouse, although Fackrell admitted he had to leave early to get home to family.
Brown says the club has a pool where people who get an ace get some drink tickets to spread around but “it was a pretty busy night that night and my tab got worked over pretty good.”
