Frank Bensel Jr. makes holes-in-one on back-to-back shots at the U.S. Senior Open
Frank Bensel Jr. made history Friday morning when he turned up a pair of aces — on back-to-back holes — in the second round of the U.S. Senior Open.
The 56-year-old golfer from Jupiter, Florida, made a 173-yard hole-in-one in the fourth hole at Newport Country Club when he whacked a 6-iron.
The feat was amazing enough until he followed it up with another ace on the 202-yard fifth hole with the same club. Both holes are par 3.
"It was like an out-of-body experience," Bensel told reporters before posing for pictures with the ball, 6-iron and pin flags from the fourth and fifth holes at Newport Country Club.
"I've played a lot of golf in my life, and just to see a hole-in-one in a tournament is pretty rare," he said. "The first one was great; that got me under par for the day. And then the second one, I just couldn't believe it. To even think that that could happen was amazing."
While consecutive holes-in-one are exceedingly rare, it's also unusual for a course to have par-3's on two straight holes, like the setup at the 7,024-yard, par-70 Newport Country Club this week.
The National Hole-In-One Registry, which accesses the probability of aces in golf, calculated the odds of making two holes-in-one in the same round as 67 million-to-1. There are no odds available for back-to-back aces, perhaps because it was never considered as most courses don't have consecutive par 3s.
The only other USGA championship to have a player card two holes-in-one was at the 1987 U.S. Mid-Amateur when Donald Bliss aced the eighth and 10th holes. Because he started on the back nine, Bliss got a hole-in-one on his first hole of the day and his 17th at Brook Hollow in Dallas.
The PGA Tour said on social media that Bensel's back-to-back aces are the only such feat in a Tour-sanctioned event on record.
They were Bensel's 13th and 14th holes-in-one in a career that includes appearances in three PGA Championships and the 2007 U.S. Open; he has never made a cut on the PGA Tour. He said his career highlight was shooting a 67 at Southern Hills at the 2021 Senior PGA Championship.
Or at least it used to be.
"After these two holes-in-one, I just didn't even know," said Bensel, who teaches at Century Golf Club in Westchester County in the summer and Mirasol in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, in the winter. "Oh, yeah. Everybody is going to want a lesson now, for sure — on a 6-iron."
Playing with his 14-year-old son, Hagen, as caddie, Bensel was 4 over after the first round and made a bogey on the second hole on Friday. When he got to No. 4, a 173-yard par 3, his son recommended a 7-iron but Bensel knew he didn't want to leave it short.
The ball landed on the front of the green, hopped a few times and rolled into the cup. On the fifth tee, Bensel pulled out his 6-iron again and took aim at the pin 202 yards away.
"I tried to calm him down. Just bring him back, you know?" said Hagen Bensel, who was named after Hall of Famer Walter Hagen. "He landed it perfectly. And he was like, 'How 'bout another one?' while it was going down."
Despite his two aces, he finished the day at 4-over 74 and was certain to miss the cut.
