My handicap index is currently 8.2, but has fluctuated between 5-11 throughout my 30+ years of playing golf.

Friday, August 19th @ 1:20pm, I played a round at the Willow Valley Golf Course in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, with friends Mark Elliott and Todd Hinton.

Leading up to this round, I had played 16 rounds on the season, three times shooting 80 on the number, but not having broken 80 in 2011.

I started by getting up and down on hole 1 for par, then hit the par-5 2nd in two. When the 12-foot eagle putt disappeared, I started to get the feeling it could be a special day.

Pars at 3-4-5, before knocking a 9-iron to 2 feet on the par-3 6th for another birdie. Greenside bunker in 2 on the par-5 7th, got up and down for another birdie. Then comes the par-3 8th, a short, downhill 140-yard par-3 recognized as the "region's best chance for a hole in one". I hit a pure PW, high and just right of the pin. The ball disappeared from view over a small mound, I thought it would be tight. We drive our carts up to the green area, and there is no sign of a third ball. We look over the green for about two minutes, but nothing. Mark asks "did you check the hole?". So I walked over to the pin and had to do a triple take. There, leaned up against the flagstick was my Titleist Pro V1 #8! Not only my first career ace at the age of 38, but I was now 6-under par through 8 holes!

Somehow I managed to make a par 5 on #9 for a front nine score of 30! After parring 10, back to back bogeys at 11-12 were my first bogeys of the day. Fought back with a birdie on the par-5 13th hole, but played bogey golf from there on out. With 42 on the back, I had shot an even-par 72 (30-42), the second best 18 holes of my life, but by far the best nine holes of golf I had ever played!

Crazy that the hole in one somehow wasn't the story of the day!