Nick Plantje has been grooving his wedge game, hitting the same shot — over and over again — into a net for the past few months as he recovered from spine surgery.
Perhaps, he perfected it.
Plantje, the superintendent at Serenity Golf Club, has a heck of a story to tell after draining an ace with his first full swing of the season.
“I had back surgery in February and then all this COVID stuff happened and I was no longer going to physio, so I brought a mat home from work and I bought a net, so I was just slowly taking a few more swings with my lob wedge. Every day, I’d take, like, five more,” Plantje explained. “So one of my best pals and his fiancé, they came out to play the course on her birthday and I ripped over to give her a drink on the short 14 th hole. I just asked them, ‘Hey, do you mind if I hit one?’
“I always have my putter and lob wedge with me, just to see how the greens are reacting. So I dropped one at the tees they were playing. It was just the exact swing that I had been making all winter, 102 yards.
“As soon as I looked up, it was tracking … A couple bounces and it just trickled in the front edge. It was wild. It was so cool.”
Some will certainly suggest that it was unofficial because Plantje didn’t play a full round.
In fact, he retrieved the yellow ball from the hole and headed back to work, still somewhat is disbelief, without even watching his friends putt out.
After all, he and the rest of a hard-working turf team at Serenity are busy maintaining the fairways and greens on the Dancing Bull layout but also grooming the still-under-construction Sun Catcher side of what will eventually be a 36-hole hangout.
“Some people are like, ‘Oh, does it count?’ ” Plantje acknowledged of his ace. “If someone asks me if I have a hole-in-one, I’m definitely not going to say, ‘No.’
“It was in between tee-markers. It went into the cup. It was a hole-in-one shot. And I have a really cool story. I wouldn’t trade it.”
***
A few more instances of pool-noodle perfection from Calgary’s golf scene …
Carey Fitzsimmons made short work of the second hole at Douglasdale, smoothing an eight-iron from 110 yards out.
Gail Fraser will be saying only good things about her five-hybrid, her weapon of choice for a 128-yard ace on the fourth hole at Fox Hollow.
Bill Chan launched an eight-iron on Hole 15 at Hamptons, and his aim was outstanding from 126 yards away.
B.J. Cavers was one-and-done on the fourth hole at Carnmoney, finishing his business with one crack of an eight-iron from the blue tees.
Report the details of your ace to wgilbertson@postmedia.com
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