MIDDLESEX TWP — At age 87, Ray DeSanto isn’t even the oldest golfer in his group.

But his age made history recently at Rittswood Golf Course.

DeSanto scored a hole-in-one on the No. 6, 142-yard hole Aug. 11 at Rittswood, becoming the oldest golfer to register an ace in the 45-year history of the facility.

“I’m not even sure we’ve ever had a hole-in-one here by someone in his 70s,” said Jennifer McManus, part owner of the golf course. “I know we’ve had no one do it in his 80s.”

Until DeSanto, that is.

The Bloomfield resident pulled out a 3-iron and lifted his tee shot toward the hole, but short of the green.

“I guess it bounced and rolled up and in,” DeSanto said. “We didn’t actually see the ball go in. You can see the flag (from the tee-box), but not the hole.

“When we got to the green, I looked all around the fringe, in the rough. ... The last place I thought to look was in the hole.”

The ace was a first for DeSanto, who took up golf at age 53 “because I wanted to do something and always enjoyed the game.”

Always active, he was a bowler for 40 years, averaging 180 at age 65, when he gave it up. He played on a championship softball team in Alaska while serving in the military in 1944.

“I played softball for years. I’ve always been into something athletic,” DeSanto said.

DeSanto has been golfing with Tony Polido, 88, of Wilkinsburg, Ray Palaski, 85, of the South Hills and Felix Coco, 85, of Bloomfield for the past four years. The quartet plays at Rittswood and Suncrest in Butler County.

“They come to our place twice a week, at least,” McManus said.

“There really are no courses near us and those places are only 25 miles away,” DeSanto said. “We’ve always enjoyed playing up there.”

DeSanto never had a goal of getting a hole-in-one.

“I’ve never even thought about it,” he said. “I suppose I’ve had a few shots wind up a few yards away, but you never think about that.

“What I”ve been trying to do for the last three years now is shoot my age. That’s really hard to do.”

DeSanto came within one stroke — and 10 months — of pulling off that feat the day he got the hole-in-one. He turns 88 next June and shot an 88.

“I needed to par the last hole and I got a 5,” he said. “The task becomes a little easier each year in terms of score ... but you get a little older each year, too.”

DeSanto played a round at Rittswood Thursday and shot in the upper 90s.

“I couldn’t hit a thing,” he said. “I guess you never know what’s going to happen one day to the next — or one shot to the next.”