Butler man sinks hole-in-one, wins convertible
RANKLIN TWP — Bill Miller will never consider the No. 13 unlucky.
Miller, 59, the Butler County Community College golf coach for the past 13 years, scored a hole-in-one on the No. 13, 179-yard hole Monday at Lake Arthur Golf Club.
The ace was the first in Miller's 30-plus years of golfing.
And it won him a car.
Miller was participating in the fourth annual Nick Herman Memorial Golf Tournament. Butler County Ford and Armstrong Cable were donating a $28,000 2017 Ford Mustang Convertible to the first golfer to sink a hole-in-one on No. 13.
“I'm still trying to digest the fact that shot went in,” Miller said. “After a while, you wonder if you're ever going to get one.
“Winning a car at the same time ... I'm still trying to reel all of this in.”
Mike Franko, Director of Advertising for Butler County Ford, has been golfing for 50 years and had never seen a hole-in-one. He was one of Miller's playing partners Monday.
“I've never had one, never seen one,” Franko said of the ace. “That was on a long par-3, too, just a long, straight shot.”
Miller used a 2 hybrid and said the ball “looked like it was going to roll left of the hole.
“I saw it hit the pin, then lost sight of it.”
Franko rode his golf cart to the green and confirmed Miller's ball was in the hole — and the car was won.
Lake Arthur Golf Club general manager Scott Choura has been working at golf courses for 26 years “and this is just the third time I've seen it happen.”
The last time was in 2014, when Mark Werner of Summit Township won a car for an ace he shot during a Butler Catholic golf outing at Lake Arthur — on the same No. 13 hole.
A full story will appear in today's Butler Eagle.