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Duffer's round comes up aces

A golfer who admits to hitting a lot of bad shots has the round of her life: two holes-in-one on a Tampa course. The odds: 67-million to 1.

By SCOTT PURKS
Published February 22, 2005

[Times photo:Mike Pease] Kathie Grimsley scored holes-in-one on No. 4 and No. 16, par-3s at Tampa's Countryway Golf Club.

TAMPA - Kathie Grimsley is a bad golfer. She admits that.

"I usually top it in the water," she said.

That's why what she did last week at Countryway Golf Club is even more amazing.

A hole-in-one?

No.

Two holes-in-one, in the same round.

"My God," Grimsley said. "I'd probably have a better chance of getting struck by lightning."

She would. The National Weather Service puts the odds of getting struck by lightning in a given year at 700,000 to 1. A mathematician hired by Golf Digest calculated the odds of making two holes-in-one in the same round at 67-million to 1.

"The odds have to be much higher for me," said Grimsley, a 46-year-old who started playing seven years ago and gets in about two rounds in four months. "I mean I hit some bad shots."

And at least two remarkable ones at Countryway, a par-61 executive course in northwest Tampa that rarely requires more than a short iron on its 11 par 3s.

Her first ace came on No. 4, a 76-yard, par-3 over ... water.

"I swung (a dinged-up "Tour Model" wedge) and the ball went up, and then I couldn't see it any more," she said. "When it came down I didn't know if it hit a house or what because it made a big sound."

The big sound was the ball rattling the pin as it slam-dunked.

"It bounced up like a gopher sticking out its head and then it went back in," said Bill Kooi, a playing partner Grimsley met on the first tee an hour earlier. "We started hootin' and hollerin'. I've been playing two times a week for 30 years and I've never seen a hole-in-one."

A man in the group behind who also stood witness met Grimsley on the next tee (the fifth) and asked if he could have back the "good luck" pink tee he gave her before the round started.

"He gave me this pink tee and said the guys in his group would laugh at him if he played with a pink tee," Grimsley said. "When he asked for it back on the fifth hole I told him it was too late because I broke it on the hole-in-one shot.

"When I broke my lucky tee I said, "Well, there goes my round."'

With the pink tee cracked in two, Grimsley followed her ace with ... a 12.

"I hit some balls in the water," she said of her adventures on the par-4 fifth.

Meanwhile, the competition between her and her husband of 27 years, Ed Grimsley, was heating up.

By the time the group reached the 65-yard, par-3 16th, Ed had battled back to within three shots of his wife, a fact he reminded her of as she teed up her ball.

"Then I noticed she might have been a little too far behind the tee, and I said, "That could be too far back and we might have to add a penalty stroke for not teeing it up within the rules,"' Ed said. "So she said, "Okay fine, I'll move it up,' and she did."

Then, swinging her trusty wedge ... she topped it.

The ball skittered over the turf, up and down, through a sand trap, trickled onto the green and fell in the cup.

"I started riding in my cart as her ball started rolling along the ground, moving very slowly," Kooi said. "I didn't think it had enough steam to get there. But then it bounced over the trap and I said, "That has a chance!"'

"Funny thing is, if she hadn't moved her tee up those four feet, the ball never would have reached the hole."

Again, there was "hootin' and hollerin"' from Kooi and the group's fourth, Tom Moran. Afterward in the clubhouse people kept buying the foursome drinks, telling Grimsley they were jealous.

"People bought me so many drinks I could barely walk out of there," said Grimsley, a vice president of a Tampa bond licensing company. "I guess this was a pretty amazing thing to a lot of people."

But not unheard of.

It's believed to have happened just a few times around the world the past few years, according to various newspaper reports.

"Yeah," Grimsley said, "but I bet those other players had to be better than me."

Probably a fair bet. Grimsley shot the lowest round of her life, 87 on the par 61 course. That's 26 over par, with two aces.

[Last modified February 22, 2005, 06:03:15]