Tim Tarcha was surrounded by golf. For someone who loves the sport, it would seem he was exactly where he wanted to be.

After earning his PGA membership in 2010, he worked at a number of courses as an assistant professional for nine years.

“When you’re an assistant pro, you’re setting up and running golf tournaments, giving lessons, working in customer service ... at the end of the day, you’re tired and contrary to what a lot of people think, you’re not golfing a whole lot.

“One of the reasons I left that behind was to give myself more opportunities to play golf myself.”

And he plays it very well. Tarcha, a 1982 graduate of Butler High, recently aced the 195-yard No. 5 hole at Aubrey’s Dubbs Dred using a 5-iron. It was his fifth career hole-in-one.

“I couldn’t see it because the hole runs uphill and the green sits above eye level,” said Tarcha. “But it looked good after I hit it.”

Tarcha’s first hole-in-one came as a teenager in the 1970s at Stoughton Acres. The others occurred at Lake Arthur and Brookline Municipal and Marlborough Country Club, a pair of courses in Massachusetts, where Tarcha lived for 13 years.

His fifth hole-in-one almost came five months ago while golfing at TPC Sawgrass in Florida. He came within two feet of an ace on the 137-yard No. 17, the course’s infamous island green.

Tarcha said getting an ace never gets old.

“I remember every one and the people I was with each time,” he said.

His recent effort at Aubrey’s yielded a 31 on the front nine, including eagles on the third and fifth holes.

“I could’ve done better,” he said. “I normally birdie No. 6, 7 and 8 with no problem. This time, I only got one out of the three and parred the other two.

“I’m golfing two or three times per week now and that’s the most I’ve golfed in years,” he said.

Tarcha grew up in Center Township and was turned on to golf by his father, Bob, when he was 8-years-old.

“I liked it immediately. It was something I could do with my dad,” he said. “I ended up playing on Butler’s high school team. I loved football, but was too small. I liked baseball, too, but golf seemed to be my best bet to succeed in a sport.”

Tarcha hit the links frequently as a young adult. Most of his rounds were played just for fun, but he did finish runner-up twice in the Butler County Open. He was employed in graphic design and moved to Massachusetts in 2000.

In 2004, he decided to take his passion for golf to another level.

He began the process of becoming a certified member of the PGA, which involved a number of trips to the association’s training center in Port St. Lucie, Fla., for a series of seminars and testing that took six years to complete.

"I loved it,“ Tarcha exclaimed. ”I was surrounded by a bunch of people who loved the game like I did. There’s three beautiful courses down there and we got to play all of them.”

Afterward, Tarcha worked as an assistant pro at three courses in Massachusetts, moved back to Pennsylvania in 2013 and took similar jobs at Wildwood Golf Club and Grove City Country Club. He last worked at the latter in 2019.

Tarcha’s enthusiasm for golf extends beyond the course.

In the 1980s, he created a dart golf game. Just recently, he came up with ‘Golfhole,’ a game that combines golf and cornhole.

He also has constructed a small par-3 hole in the back yard of his Butler residence on Muntz Avenue where he and his friends hold an annual tournament, known as the Muntz Masters.

He keeps up with the top players in the game and has seen 10 major championships in person, including three trips to Georgia to take in the real Masters.

Tarcha still gives lessons in his free time and admits: “That’s the best part of being a pro, helping someone improve their game.”