Most golfers go their whole lives without making an ace.
So this should make all you weekend hackers feel just great: Jake Martinez of Tucson, Arizona, recently made two holes-in-one. In one round. Seven holes apart. Jake will celebrate his 12th birthday on Saturday.
Playing in the U.S. Kids Palm Springs Open on Sept. 18, Martinez aced the 100-yard fifth hole and then the 110-yard 12th hole at Mission Hills North in Rancho Mirage, California. He used a pitching wedge both times.
“I’ve been saying for years, I don’t have one and I’ve been saying since he was tiny that he’s going to beat me to it,” said Rick Martinez, Jake’s firefighter father.
So what was he thinking as the balls were in flight?
“The first one, it was on my mind the entire way: ‘Oh, this thing has a chance.’ On the next one, the dad of one of Jake’s playing partners said, ‘He just didn’t do it again, did he?’ And as soon as he said that, I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, this might go in again,’ and yea, there it goes.”
There was one more par-3 hole after that, the 15th. No way he gets three aces in one day, right?
“I’m telling you, that one came off pretty good, too,” Martinez said. “I wasn’t going to say anything when it was in the air.” Alas, there was not a third hole–in-one but Jake’s ball did end up just 10 feet away and he made his birdie putt. Imagine going 5 under on three consecutive par 3s.
The two aces came during the first day of a two-day tournament.
“I think the quietest I’ve ever heard it on the tee box in a kid’s tournament was when he got back to No. 5 the next day,” Rick said. “Everybody was quiet and we were all like, ‘Let’s just see what happens.'”
He didn’t get another one, and no, he doesn’t rib his dad about beating him to a hole-in-one.
“He’s a pretty humble kid,” Martinez said. “He wants to move on and get the next one.”
The National Hole-In-One Registry lists the odds of an average golfer making an ace at 12,000-to-1. A low handicapper’s odds are about 5,000-to-1. But get this: the odds of making two aces in the same round are 67 million-to-1.
After his round, Martinez posed for pictures with the two golf balls but also with two aces from a deck of cards.
Jake Martinez of Tucson, Arizona, celebrates his two holes-in-one at Mission Hills Golf Resort & Spa in Rancho Mirage, California on Sept. 18, 2021. Photo by Rick Martinez
The inspiration for that came from another lefty, Brian Harman, who aced two holes during the final round of the 2015 Barclays.
Brian Harman poses after his round with two Aces after making two holes-in-one during the final round of the 2015 Barclays at Plainfield Country Club in Edison, New Jersey. Photo by Scott Halleran/Getty Images