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Moody gods of golf smile on teenager
By HARMONY JOHNSON, Times Staff Writer ST. PETERSBURG -- At age 13, Jordan Schwartz has already accomplished what most golfers spend a lifetime trying to achieve. On July 11, he teed up on the eighth hole at Mangrove Bay Golf Course, on 62nd Avenue NE. He pulled out a 3-iron and whacked the ball 180 yards. It obliged and rolled into the cup. The St. Petersburg teenager, who will enter the eighth grade at Wellington School in August, described the event simply. "I took my 3-iron and I hit it really good," he said. "It bounced before the green, then it went on the green and it went in the cup." Not bad for a kid who took up the game just two years ago so he could join his dad, Neal, on the links. "I wanted to play the sport with him," Jordan said. "Now I'm beating him." When he aced No. 8 last week, Jordan was participating in a weeklong junior golf program sponsored by the city. Leisure Services hosts various golf day camp sessions for boys and girls 6 to 18 each summer, said Jeff Hollis, city golf course director. Three teens also in the junior golf program witnessed Jordan's shot. A ranger at the course verified that the ball went into the cup, Jordan said. In honor of his accomplishment, Jordan received a hole-in-one trophy from Mangrove Bay. The trophies are given to all golfers who ace a hole at the course, Hollis said. But as a member of the golf day camp, Jordan's feat was rare. "We probably don't have one a year in our junior program," Hollis said. According to the Web site for the United States Golf Register, an organization that records holes-in-one for historical purposes, "the estimated odds of acing a hole with any given swing are one in 33,000." With those odds against him, Jordan said a combination of two things helped him make the memorable shot. "Skill to hit it and luck to make it roll into the hole," he said.
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From the Times South Pinellas desks Letters |
