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In one stroke

Ann Hensarling has hit seven aces. Two came in one round.

By KELLIE DIXON, Times Staff Writer
Published November 14, 2007

Annie Hensarling, a member of Fox Hollow Golf Club, has recorded seven holes in one in her life. Her first was when she was 14 growing up in Louisiana. She has five holes-in-one at the Fox Hollow Course since joining in 1995.
	[Brendan Fitterer | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Fox Hollow Golf Club] A layout of the No. 5 hole at Fox Hollow Golf Course in Trinity shows where Ann Hensarling recorded three of her seven holes-in-one. [Brendan Fitterer | Times] Ann Hensarling hits out of the sand on the front nine at Fox Hollow Golf Club last month. Five of her aces were at the club.

Ann Hensarling had been playing golf for only about a year when she recorded her first hole-in-one. Thirty-four years later, she's added six more aces to her resume.

She comes from a golfing family. Her grandfather played and was good friends with Ben Hogan who, by the way, had only four aces.

Her father played some on the tour, and her brother got a scholarship to Brigham Young University.

Hensarling, now 48, didn't grow up clutching a golf club. She played tennis in high school because there weren't that many girls taking up golf. Her senior summer she decided to hit the driving range. Frustrated by her performance, she packed up her clubs and left. But a few minutes down the road, she changed her mind.

She wasn't a quitter.

She walked on to the women's golf team at Stephens College in Missouri and played for four years. After graduating in 1984, she worked in a psychiatric hospital.

After a work-related incident almost killed her, Hensarling slowly got back into the sport.

Now, the Tarpon Springs resident plays roughly three times a week at Fox Hollow Golf Club in Trinity where she has been a member since 1995. She can drive the ball 200-plus yards and always hits from the men's tees. Here's a look at her aces:

No. 1

Using a 3-iron, the then 14-year-old aced a 140-yard hole on a course near her home in Louisiana. She was walking the course with her dad and brother.

No. 2

She was around 28 years old when she moved to Florida and became a member at Tarpon Woods. There, she used a 7-iron to record a hole-in-one on No. 8, which is 140 yards long. Initially she thought she had overshot the green so she went to look for her ball. The people she was playing with found it in the hole.

No. 3 and No. 4

Hensarling joined Fox Hollow in 1995. After four years, she was on a roll. She aced the fifth hole three times, starting with April 1999 and July 2000. She altered her club choice depending upon the placement of the pin. First she used a 9-iron. Then a pitching wedge.

No. 5 and No. 6

In 2002, Hensarling didn't just record her fifth ace, she nailed her sixth as well. In the same round. Yeah, you read that right. First, she aced No. 5.But later in the 18-hole round, she did it again. Tom West was playing ahead of Hensarling, and from the No. 17 tee he watched her ball roll into the No. 16. "Her balls don't spin backwards," West said. "That's why she has so many holes-in-one. Her ball always hits and rolls forward. She is a really good player."

No. 7

She hit her latest ace - April 2004 - on the twelfth hole. She used a 7-wood. West said Hensarling is good because she has the right technique, uses the right club and is consistent. But he gives her a hard time about her unorthodox swing. "She kind of swings like John Daly," West said. 'The club goes really long back. On the backswing, it almost hits the ground."

Next?

Hensarling, who has a 7 handicap and plays three times a week, jokes that she is getting a little rusty. She hasn't had a hole-in-one in three years. She wants to ace No. 8 at Fox Hollow so she will have one on each of the par-3 holes. Plus, she said, she needs to put her name back up on that board. "I need my name back on that plaque," Hensarling said. "People are catching up with me."

Your odds

In 1999, Golf Digest reported that "one insurance company puts a PGA Tour pro's chances at 1 in 3,756 and an amateur's at 1 in 12,750." That issue also reported that the "odds of an amateur making two holes-in-one in a round are 9,222,500 to 1."

We're looking for good golf stories and would like to thank PGA professional Matt Cote of Fox Hollow Golf Club for this suggestion. Send Kellie Dixon an e-mail at kdixon@sptimes.com or call her at (352) 544-9480.

[Last modified November 13, 2007, 21:56:57]