Two holes-in-one, with same golf ball: the historic night at Minneapolis Golf Club
MINNEAPOLIS -- It's a smooth swinging Saturday morning for 13-year-old Preston Miller, who is warming up for a lesson. He's calm, compared to a couple days ago.
"I was jumping up and down, yelling," said Miller, a seventh-grader who plays on the St. Louis Park High School varsity golf team. "It was my first hole in one ever."
Thursday night at Minneapolis Golf Club will go down in the history of the sport. Not because of Miller's shot, but everything that happened next...triggered by Preston making the bold decision to continue playing the same golf ball.
"This golf course you can't lose many balls. I wasn't thinking of losing the ball at all," he said.
But he did lose the ball. Which started this story down a wild road.
After a wayward drive on hole No. 7, Preston tried to clear the trees with his second shot. Instead, it ricocheted off a tree and disappeared in the rough. It was later found by a Ricardo Fernandez, a member who was playing the adjacent 12th hole at the time. He put it in play on hole No. 16, and drained his fourth career hole in one.
"I've never heard of that before. It's the craziest thing I've ever heard," Miller said.
"Two holes in one, one day, by two different people. I can't imagine it's ever happened before," said Minneapolis head golf professional Dan Simpson.
The ball was a Titleist 4 and had a St. Louis Park logo stamp, making it unmistakably Preston's, who was enjoying a free root beer when he found out what happened.
"Ricardo walked in and he's like, 'is this one of your guys' balls?' I was like 'yeah,' he was like, 'I just hit a hole in one with it' and I'm like there's no way because I also did that and lost the ball," Preston said.
"The club is already talking about where should we put this golf ball," said Simpson. "I mean this should be in the club. (It's) part of our history. So if Preston's willing to give it up we're gonna display it in the clubhouse, or get a duplicate ball."
For now, Preston's got it in his room. The ball that wanted to be found.
"Golf gives us great stories," said Simpson. "And this is another one."