Golfers ace No. 10 at Butler Country Club
PENN TWP — Two shots, two rolls, two holes-in-one — two hours apart.
Such an event occurred on the No. 10 hole Sunday morning at Butler Country Club. Ken Fleeson of Cranberry Township and Dr. Jack Mascia of Butler turned the trick.
“I’ve been here five years now and never heard of anything like it,” BCC assistant pro Dave Yokitis said. “Other people have been here longer and never heard of it.
“We don’t get two aces on the same day anywhere, let alone on the same hole. Hole-in-ones occur on the No. 10 hole here maybe five times a year, if that, and a lot of golfers come through this place.”
Fleeson, 58, has been a golfer for 30 years and a BCC member for eight. He carries a 15-handicap and had never scored an ace before.
He used a 5-iron in teeing off from the 155-yard No. 10 hole Sunday. The tee time to begin his round was 7 a.m.
“It’s a two-tiered green with the pin placement at the front of the green,” Fleeson said. “All I wanted to do was clear the water.”
His tee shot landed on the hill, well past the hole, rolled back down and into the hole.
“I came close to a hole-in-one several years ago at Beaver Valley,” said Fleeson, who golfs twice a week. “The ball wound up maybe three inches from the pin.”
Fleeson was unaware that another club member had followed up his hole-in-one with a similar shot that day.
“Really? I can’t believe someone else made that same shot later in the day. That’s something. It has to be a rarity,” Fleeson said.
Dr. Mascia, 74, a retired orthodontist living in Butler, began his round Sunday at 9 a.m. He teed off from the seniors tee on No. 10, 123 yards away. He used a 7-iron.
Like Fleeson’s, his shot landed on the hill and rolled back into the hole. A BCC member for more than 40 years, Sunday marked his first-ever ace on the course.
“I play three or four times a week,” Dr. Mascia said. “This shot probably landed five feet from the hole before rolling back.
“Someone else getting a hole-in-one earlier is fine with me. I’m happy for the guy. Those shots are pure luck anyway.”
Dr. Mascia carries a 22-handicap. He’s had one other hole-in-one in his lifetime, on a course in Fort Myers, Fla., five years ago.
“My son kidded me that it took me 40 years to get one,” he said. “You never expect to get another one.”
Certainly not on the same hole as someone else two hours earlier.
“I’d like to know the odds on that one,” Yokitis said.
