BUTLER TWP — A nine-hole golf course with no hole longer than 300 yards, in existence since 1986.

Hole-in-ones would be too numerous to count, right?

Not so at Mount Chestnut.

John "Jake"Orloski designed the executive golf course and owns it. He also owns one of only three holes-in-one in its history.

"It came last year on the No. 1 hole, 125 yards out," Orloski, 69, said. "I hit a 7-iron that landed in front of the green and just rolled in.

"That was my first and only hoe-in-one. I remember how excited I was. I know how rare those things are here."

There was one other ace scored on the course last year. The late Harold "Bo" Voelker, a longtime Butler football assistant coach, produced a hole-in-one at Mount Chestnut years ago.

Orloski didn't start playing golf until he was 40, around the same time he bought the acreage to build the golf course. Mitch Fudoli sold him the nine acres of land.

"We had the driving range, but the rest of this was all brush," Orloski said. "I lit a lot of it on fire to get rid of it.

"Once I got that driving range, I figured I better start learning something about playing golf."

He believes the lack of aces on the course have a lot to do with the quality of the greens, which are comprised of 75 percent sand and the rest top-soil.

"Our greens are soft and the pin-placements aren't easy," he said. "We move them around from front to back.

"We do get a lot of beginner golfers here and they're not likely to get holes-in-one, but we get some longtime golfers here, too. It's a good, relaxing atmosphere to work on your game.

"We've had problems with very few golfers at this course ... maybe one in 500," Orloski added.

Bob Pryor, 73, is the groundskeeper at Mount Chestnut and has manned that post for the past 10 years. He held similar duties at Lake Arthur Country Club for 50 years.

"Bob is as good as anybody when it comes to manicuring a golf course," Orloski said.

Orloski has four sons — John, Doug, Brad and Wade — who helped him build the course. He bought the land in 1979.

He recalled backing over Wade, then 5 years old, with a machine while working on some of the grounds.

"He was behind me, I didn't know it, and I threw the thing in reverse and went right over top of him," Orloski said. "I was scared to death when I realized it.

"Fortunately, the ground was so soft he just sank down into it and wasn't hurt. We averted disaster on that one."

Now 35, Wade Orloski is in business for himself in Knoxville, Tenn., setting up computer systems for various companies.

Eldest son John was killed in an autombolie accident in 1982. Another son is a state trooper, the other works in fiber optics. Orloski and his wife of 23 years, Fayme, live in a house right next to the golf course.

"I'm out here all the time," Orloski said of Mount Chestnut. "You have to keep a course groomed nice. It's like keeping a car shiny.

"I've always enjoyed working in the dirt. I guess that's why I like it out here so much."