Kyler Christopher’s final shot taken in a regular-season match for the Chittenango boys golf team went in the hole, as do all other final shots in stroke-play tournaments – except this hole-out came from 245 yards away.
With one remarkable swing, Christopher got a once-in-a-lifetime memory, and pulled off golf’s rarest feat, as the Bears’ match with Cortland wound down last Tuesday afternoon at Willowbrook Country Club.
In this nine-hole match, Christopher, along with two Cortland golfers, finished up at Willowbrook’s 9th, a short par-four of 285 yards with out of bounds on the left and a fairway that slopes left to right.
Christopher hit what he said was a perfect drive, and it rolled down to the green, where it disappeared from sight. By the time the threesome reached the green, Christopher had realized that the ball had hit the flagstick and tumbled into the cup.
It was a hole-in-one on a par-four, a double eagle. While aces take place on par-three holes, they seldom occur even on par-fours that are driveable. The shot helped Christopher complete a 35.
The irony of all this was that, even with the ace, the Bears lost, 210-268, to Cortland, with Tyler Zacek (38) and Adam Passalugo (39) leading a quintet of Purple Tigers who finished ahead of the 48 by Chittenango’s Clayton Chandler. Ronnie Ince added a 50 and no one else on the Bears broke 60.
A day earlier, without the hole-in-one dramatics, Chittenango had lost, 219-240, to Westhill at Camillus Country Club, but Christopher tied for the low round in that match with a 39, the same as the Warriors’ star seventh-grader, Anthony Maglisco, though none of Christopher’s teammates got close to that total.
