Cranberry Township resident Jon Farmer is all smiles after getting a hole-in-one recently in Georgia. He had witnessed four others get aces during golf events this year. Submitted Photo

CRANBERRY TWP — Three different golf courses, four holes-in-one — Jon Farmer was part of all of them in 2022.

But none of them were his.

The Cranberry Township resident and CEO of Arsenal Resources participates in a number of golf outings and often takes golf buddies with him. He plays a number of rounds with Jarrod Siket, Gary and Jim McGovern at Treesdale Golf and Country Club.

“He’s an all-around awesome guy,” Jim McGovern said of Farmer. “He plays in a lot of events at some great venues and always thinks about bringing at least one of us along.”

Farmer did not know one person who joined him for a round of golf on the Ocean Reef course in Key Largo, Fla., in January. But that man secured his first hole-in-one that day.

“I know his first name was Scott, that’s all,” Farmer said. “It was fun seeing somebody get a hole-in-one like that. I didn’t think much of it at the time.”

But that was only the beginning.

Mars resident Gary McGovern was in Farmer’s foursome during an outing in June at the Pete Dye Golf Club in Bridgeport, W.Va. McGovern aced the No. 4, 180-yard hole. The following month at the Pete Dye course, Farmer was in a foursome that included Jim and Gary McGovern. It was Jim’s turn to score a hole-in-one this time, doing so on the No. 7, 150-yard hole.

“We were joking around that maybe it was my turn to get one, since Gary had one the previous time,” Jim McGovern said. “My shot was high and it came down right over the pin and disappeared. We thought it sailed over the green or something,.

“When we couldn’t find it past the green, we looked in the hole and there it was. Slam dunk.”

Jim McGovern got a bonus with his ace. The outing featured a getaway vacation or cash equivalent to the first ace on that hole. He opted for the cash and received $8,000 for the shot.

“I was beginning to feel like everybody’s good luck charm,” Farmer said.

That charm wasn’t worn out yet.

Farmer and Siket were playing a round together at an outing benefiting Allegheny Health Network’s cancer research at Allegheny Country Club in Sewickley in August. Siket used a 9-iron to ace the No. 8, 165-yard hole. It was his third career hole-in-one, but by far his most profitable.

He received $50,000 for that ace.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Siket said. “It was a small green, uphill, and the ball just rolled in. I was beginning to feel badly. I mean, what were the chances of all of us getting holes-in-one with Jon in our group during the same year?”

“It was a pretty lucrative summer for us,” Jim McGovern said, laughing.

For Farmer, patience paid off — and justice arrived.

Three weeks ago, he was playing golf on a course just outside of Atlanta, Ga., and shot a hole-in-one on a 130-yard hole. A golfer for 20 years, he had never gotten one.

“Some golfers go a lifetime without getting one,” Farmer said of a hole-in-one. “I didn’t think I’d ever get one. About six times, I’ve come within an inch or two of the hole. It’s luck sometimes, whether it rolls in or not,” Farmer said.

“I called those guys when I got it. This whole thing was pretty crazy.”

“I was so happy for him,” Siket said. “Jon is a generous guy, always taking part in charity golf events and fundraisers. He’s a very giving person. It’s fitting that one finally went in for him.”

The odds of an amateur golfer getting a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1. There are approximately 150,000 holes-in-one per year from an estimated 490 million rounds of golf, per golfdigest.com.

“Totally crazy,” Jim McGovern said. “But it couldn’t happen to a better guy.”