Werner makes shots of his life, wins car
FRANKLIN TWP — The odds were stacked against him.
Mark Werner won the car anyway.
Werner, 57, of Summit Township, shot a hole-in-one on the No. 13, 187-yard hole at Lake Arthur Country Club Saturday, winning a 2014 Toyota Corolla donated by Diehl Automotive in the process.
The ace occurred during the annual Butler Catholic School golf outing.
Werner has been golfing for 40 years and never shot a hole-in-one before.
“I came within a few inches of one at Hi-Level (golf course) maybe 12 years ago,” Werner said. “I haven’t come close to one since.”
Diehl employee Jack Rial, part of a foursome from the company playing in the outing, said Diehl donates a car for a potential golf outing giveaway approximately once a month.
“I’ve been there 15 years and this is the first time I can recall somebody winning it,” Rial said. “It’s such a rare thing.”
Scott Choura is in his third year as general manager of Lake Arthur’s golf facility. He said Werner is the first golfer to ace No. 13 since he’s been there.
“That’s a pretty challenging par-3,” he said. “There have been golfers to ace that hole here, but not in the past few years.”
Choura added that Werner’s hole-in-one was only the second ace anywhere on the course this year.
“You just don’t see cars given away at these golf outings,” he said. “I’ve been working at golf courses for 22 years and it’s only the second time I’ve seen it done. I remember one happening in DuBois a few years back.”
Werner said “I was more sedated than the guys I was playing with” when the hole-in-one occurred.
“It was a straight shot and you could see it all the way,” he said. “The ball landed about four feet in front of the pin and rolled in.”
He used a No. 2 utility club to win the car.
Werner has the options of keeping the car, selling it or trading it back in toward the price of a more expensive vehicle.
He is uncertain of which way he’ll go.
“I don’t know ... I wasn’t exactly expecting this to happen today,” Werner said. “I actually had a tee time at Pine Grove scheduled today, but my son called me and was looking to fill out a foursome for this outing, so we came here.”
There were 135 golfers in the field — 27 foursomes, each playing with a junior golfer — at the outing.
The golf outing is one of three major fund-raisers held by Butler Catholic each year.
