Last evening, I was chatting with someone discussing golf courses, and he mentioned playing at a Westchester golf club, Doral Arrowwood. I replied that I knew the course and that it was one of my favorite courses since that is where I got a double eagle. So that gave me an opening to tell my golf story of how I got this rarest of golf achievements.
Most golfers strive for the rare hole-in-one. I still hope to achieve that feat even after six decades of golf. But I did accomplish the double eagle, for which the odds are close to 2,000,000 to 1. Doral Arrowwood was a very nice nine-hole course (it has now closed) It has some interesting holes on a nice layout. On November 1, 2016, I met with an old friend to play the course. It was my first time there, and he had been a member. It was late in the season and a cool but sunny day. I wasn’t focused on getting a good score, I was enjoying one more day of golf and catching up with a friend. The third hole is a short par 5 of 433 yards. The tee is out of shoot between trees, and the green is protected by a pond and a large bunker that hides the surface of the green.
Somehow I hit an excellent drive that left me 175 yards to the green from the middle of the fairway. Despite the obstacles to the green, I decided to take my 4 hybrid and go for it. It was struck well and a straight shot, but I was far enough away not to see where it landed. My partner hit his third shot from about 100 yards out directly at the pin. Since the surface of the green is hidden, we did not see where his ball landed. We drive around the pond to the back of the green and see a ball about 6 feet from the pin. It was my friend’s ball. We started looking for my ball. Did I go long? Was it in the trap? I thought I hit it well enough to clear the pond. We look in the hole, and there is a ball – a double eagle. My playing partner Ron collected lost golf balls and gave me that ball to play with that day, so he took some credit. For the rarest of golf achievements, I had to buy a plaque to acknowledge the event and a regular reminder of a great golf day.
