It was a round I’ll remember for the rest of my life at Ravens Golf Club at Three Peaks.
I was playing with my best friend, Elliot Hough, and three brothers, Austin, Alex, and Anthony. We were on the 12th hole, a 182-yard par 3. I pulled an 8-iron, knowing that I typically hit a fade. My plan was simple: start it a little left and let the ball work its way toward the target.
Instead, I trapped the 8-iron and sent it left.
Really left.
The ball came bounding off a hill to the left of the green. At that point, none of us had any idea what was going to happen. Somehow, the ball caught the slope and started rolling across the entire surface of the green.
And then it disappeared.
For a moment, we honestly couldn’t believe it. Our first thought was that the ball had to have rolled into some kind of depression on the green. There was no way it had actually gone in.
But I had a sneaking suspicion.
Something about the way it disappeared made me think there was a chance.
So I pulled out my phone and started recording myself running up to the green. I wanted to capture whatever I was about to find—because even if it wasn’t in the hole, I knew something crazy had just happened.
As I reached the raised green, I looked across the putting surface.
No ball.
I knew.
I had just made a hole in one.
I was floored. I couldn’t believe it. Elliot, Austin, Alex, and Anthony were there to witness one of those moments that every golfer dreams about, and somehow it had actually happened to me.
My first hole in one.
Even now, it still feels like a dream. I don’t think it has completely set in yet. You spend so much time playing golf hoping that one perfect shot will find the bottom of the cup, and when it finally happens, it almost doesn’t feel real—especially when it happens in a way you could never have imagined.
A 182-yard 8-iron. A shot trapped left. A hill beside the green. A ball that somehow rolled across the entire surface and found the bottom of the cup.
It wasn’t the shot I pictured when I dreamed about making a hole in one.
It was better.
Because it was mine.
And I got to share it with my best friend and three brothers who will always be able to say they were there when it happened.
Ravens Golf Club at Three Peaks. Hole 12. 182 yards.
One swing.
One unforgettable moment.
My first hole in one.