On the South Suburban Golf Course, Dylan Jimenez, a 12-year-old Highlands Ranch resident, stood in front of the tee of the Par 3 second hole on May 28.
And with one swing of his golf club, the unimaginable happened that day.
Dylan Jimenez struck the ball and watched it fly into the distance. The ball became smaller and smaller. In fact, he and his friends couldn’t exactly tell where the ball went.
At that moment, Joe Jimenez, Dylan’s father, got a call from his son as he was pulling into a parking spot at work.
Dylan said to his father: “I think I got a hole-in-one.”
Joe asked where the ball was and Dylan told his father that he thought it rolled towards the pin and that he was going to go look.
As they hung up the phone, Joe was overcome with excitement, and all he could think was: “I hope he got it.”
Dylan Jimenez FaceTime calls his dad, Joe, to show him that he hit a hole-in-one while playing on the South Suburban Golf Course. Credit: Courtesy of Joe Jimenez
Within minutes, Dylan Jimenez FaceTime called his father to show him that he got a hole-in-one. He told his father that people who had witnessed the ball go in were waiting for him at the hole, and once he got there, he was greeted with applause.
“Getting that FaceTime call from him was one of the best dad moments of my life,” said Joe. “Seeing and hearing the pure joy in his voice, and biggest smile ever, made me so proud.”
According to the National Hole-in-One Registry and the PGA of America, the odds of the average golfer getting a hole-in-one is about 12,000 to 1.
Todd Marley, head golf professional at the South Suburban Golf Course in Centennial, has been playing golf for 50 years and said hitting a hole-in-one is a very difficult feat because of the many variables involved.
“A large part of it is skill,” said Marley. “The more often I can hit it close to the hole, the more chances I have. But there is an element of luck as well.”
Everything has to be perfect, Marley said – from the wind, temperature, how the ball hits on the green, how it rolls on the green, the speed of the ball, if it has the right curve.
“The ball is 1.68 inches in diameter and the hole is four-and-a-quarter inches,” said Marley. “That’s pretty difficult to get that size into that size hole.”
Golf is a hobby that Dylan Jimenez picked up only about a year ago.
Highlands Ranch’s Dylan Jimenez, now 13, kept the ball he made a hole-in-one with at a South Suburban golf course. Credit: Courtesy of Joe Jimenez
With his main focus on baseball, he had asked his father – who has been playing golf occasionally for a number of years – if he could join him on the course one day.
Now, Dylan is one of only five golfers who shot a hole-in-one this spring at one of the four South Suburban Parks and Recreation golf courses – one of which is an Arnold Palmer design.
Since it was a week before his 13th birthday when Dylan hit his hole-in-one, Joe asked his son if he wanted his own clubs for his birthday. But he said he would rather keep using his father’s clubs.
“It was like an early birthday present,” Joe said.
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