IT TOOK HIM long enough. I kid, I kid.
Golfer Jac Osborn, 68, recently carded his mind-boggling 18th career hole-in-one, his first since relocating to sunny Sequim from sunnier San Diego in 2002.
His 18th single came on the 127-yard No. 8 hole at Cedars at Dungeness with a Bridgestone ball and was witnessed by Jerry Levitan and Mac McTaggert.
“The pin was visible, I hit it with a wedge and it just rolled up and in,” Osborn said.
Osborn, a retired police officer with the San Diego Police Department, started playing golf relatively late in life, while in his mid-20’s around 1970.
He was working overnight shifts and would get off at 9 a.m. or 10 a.m.
“Being single there wasn’t much to do and they’d drag me along and I’d beat it all over the place,” Osborn said of his first golf outings.
He lucked out pretty quickly, notching his first hole-in-one on the third hole at San Diego Country Club on March 30, 1970.
Three must have been his lucky number as Osborn remembers hitting a Titleist 3 with his 3-iron at around 3 in the afternoon.
Oh, his cart number was also in the 30’s.
I’m inclined to believe Osborn when he says self-effacingly that this one, like most of his aces was a “fluke.”
“That one bounced off a tree, off the cart path and found the hole,” Osborn said of the original single.
“Hole-in-ones are an absolute fluke, they are just luck.
“Of all the ones I’ve hit I’ve only seen three go in the way they were supposed to.”
Osborn bit hard on the lure of golf, working his game down from shooting a 176 the first time he played the South Course at famed Torrey Pines to eventually carding a 67 on the same course.
You can imagine the amount of play it would take to improve that drastically, and as he improved the hole-in-ones followed.
Osborn aced what is arguably the most picturesque golf hole in the world, the downhill, shoot-toward the Pacific Ocean seventh hole at Pebble Beach, receiving a lucky carom off a mound and shooting straight left to the back left pin placement.
He aced all six par-3’s during a 20-year membership at the 27-hole Stardust Country Club (now Riverwalk) in Mission Valley.
At one point the aces were coming so fast that Osborn availed himself of a “Hole-in-One Club” ad found in the pages of Golf Digest.
For $100 the ad guaranteed a plaque, a card and other perks and a $500 insurance policy to pay for post-round drinks.
Osborn used his membership liberally, carding four singles in one year, all at different courses with different playing partners.
Since moving to the North Olympic Peninsula, Osborn has been a member of Peninsula Golf Club in Port Angeles, SunLand Golf & Country Club and is currently a men’s club member at Cedars and SkyRidge Golf Course.
And he never had the chance to write down that 18th single.
Until now. Good job, Jac!
Scramble at PTGC
Port Townsend Golf Club will host a two-person scramble on Saturday.
Cost is $30 per player.
Phone the course at 360-385-4547.
Greenskeeper Tourney
Cedars at Dungeness is bringing back its Greenskeepers Tournament and Luau on Saturday, Aug. 18.
This tournament will thank those hard-toiling greenskeepers who replace your divots, rake those sand traps and provide the maintenance that keeps everything looking ship-shape.
I’m betting that the pin locations will be found in some clever locations as a “thank you” to those participating.
Cost is $100 for nonmembers, $70 for members and $57 for members with a cart lease.
Players will receive range balls, greens fees, use of cart, a tee prize, competition money and the luau meal after play.
Check-in is 11 a.m. with a 12:30 p.m. shotgun start.
Valid handicaps are needed for the low and high divisions, and if there’s only one handicap teams will be placed in the Callaway Division.
Deadline to register is Aug. 12.
Stop by the Cedars clubhouse or phone 360-683-6344.
Port Ludlow tourneys
On Thursday, Port Ludlow Golf Club hosts a benefit for the Greater Poulsbo Chamber of Commerce and the Olympic College Poulsbo Campus Scholarship Fund.
This 36-hole tournament is open to male and female adults and juniors, 9th grade and older, with no handicap restrictions.
The first 18 holes will be played Sunday at Oakbrook, which is also the site of a U.S. Amateur qualifier on Wednesday, Aug. 1.
The no-cut tourney will wrap with a final 18 holes at Port Ludlow on Monday.
There will be gross and net payouts.
Registration is due today.
To register, phone 360-895-0130 or visit www.jrgt.com/2004/schedule.php.
Port Ludlow will also host The Pacific Northwest Golf Association’s 58th Annual Junior Boys’ Amateur Championship Aug. 6-10.
Lady Niner Invitational
A total of 67 lady golfers representing six area courses competed in the Cedars at Dungeness Lady Niner’s Invitational.
The ladies played Joker’s Wild on the back 9 at Cedars and had chamber of commerce-weather with temps around 70 and plenty of sunshine.
A delicious lasagne dinner with salad was enjoyed upon conclusion of the competition and prizes awarded.
Special thanks went to Jo Hendrickson for organizing the event.
“Everyone left having enjoyed a day of camaraderie and good fun with kudos to the members of Cedars of Dungeness who spent their time putting together this annual Invitational,” said Niners member Lee Stanley.
First place winners were Linda Deal of Port Townsend, Jackie Davis and Ginny Thompson of Cedars and Ruby Issacson of Lake Cushman.
The second-place team was Barb Thompson of Peninsula, Arlene Cox and Vernice Quigley of Cedars and Faye Criscione of Lake Cushman.
Finishing third were Pat Conway and Pat Charters of Cedars, July Kelley of SunLand and Kathy Traci of Port Ludlow.
There was also a hotly contested chipping contest overseen by Cedars pro Garrett Smithson.
Issacson was first and Dian Woodle of Cedars was second.
Georgia Elisason of Lake Cushman won the putting contest with Charters taking second.
Shari Miller of Cedars claimed a “hole-in-one” contest on the putting green with Suzi Gruber of Port Ludlow in second.
Els cements legacy
As tough as it was to watch Adam Scott deliver another Aussie final-round major meltdown (see Norman, Greg 1996 Masters), I take solace in the fact that Ernie Els was able to swoop in and take the Claret Jug.
Els was one of the top golfers around in my formative years, winning two U.S. Opens in the 90’s and a British Open in 2002.
Els post-tourney thank-you for former South African President Nelson Mandela was a classy touch.
He won his first U.S. Open in 1994, less than two month’s after the country’s Apartheid-ending elections in which Mandela was voted president.
“Right after the change I was the first one to win a major, so there’s a lot of significance there in my life,” Els said.
“In a way we intertwined together in a crazy way, and I just felt he’s been so important for us being where we are today as a nation and as sports people.”
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Golf columnist Michael Carman can be reached at 360-417-3527 or pdngolf@gmail.com.
