FARGO — The 19th American Gold Gymnastics Annual Golf Scramble at Rose Creek Golf Course in Fargo on Tuesday raised almost $20,000 for the local gymnastics program. If John Alexander could have, he probably would have done a double twist back layout.
His one shot, a hole-in-one, was worth $10,000, a rarity in that a golf event had to invoke hole-in-one insurance to pay it. In fact, that was a subject of a joke before the Moorhead resident teed off on the 154-yard seventh hole.
They were talking to an American Gold tourney volunteer who was there to verify any potential ace.
“We just said, the insurance company is probably making out like bandits because they’ve done this for years and nobody has ever got a hole-in-one,” Alexander said. “Go figure. Then I thought, well, the pin is actually in a pretty decent spot and that could happen. Didn’t think I would get it.”
He did, hitting an 8-iron against a wind blowing left to right. His ball started to fade, bounced 10 feet short of the hole, took a hop before the ball disappeared.
“We really didn’t know what happened,” Alexander said. “I was just in shock, OK, that ball just disappeared, what just happened? The guys in my group seemed shocked, too, they weren’t really saying anything.”
A group in front on the No. 8 tee box, knowing it was a hole-in-one challenge, was watching and saw the entire shot unfold. They reacted with hoots and hollers.
“That’s when I knew something had happened,” Alexander said. “My glasses went flying, my 8-iron went flying, it was like a yard sale on the tee box.”
There have been plenty of corporate outings Rose Creek head professional Matt Cook has overseen over the years. This was only the second time he’s seen a tournament utilize corporate event insurance. Most programs have stipulations like a minimum length of a hole and typically cost a few hundred dollars.
It doesn’t happen often in golf. Fargo Country Club head professional Dave Schultz, the host of “The Hole in One Show” that just finished its fifth season, hasn’t had one since the cameras have been rolling. An ace wins a new car.
The closest to date was Zach Schnitzler in Season 1, a shot that came within 5 inches of the cup at Maple River Golf Club in Mapleton, N.D. It came on the ninth hole from 155 yards.
Schultz resurrected a longstanding television show that former Fargo sportscaster Jim Adelson made popular for years. There were two aces in Adelson’s show tenure.
It wasn’t a car, but Alexander will take the cash.
“It happened so fast,” he said. “Was that really worth 10 grand? It was pretty cool. I’ve never been close to a hole-in-one.”
Jeff Kolpack, the son of a reporter and an English teacher, and the brother of a reporter, worked at the Jamestown Sun, Bismarck Tribune and since 1990 The Forum, where he’s covered North Dakota State athletics since 1995. He has covered all 10 of NDSU’s Division I FCS national football titles and has written four books: “Horns Up,” “North Dakota Tough,” “Covid Kids” and “They Caught Them Sleeping: How Dot Reinvented the Pretzel.” He is also the radio host of “The Golf Show with Jeff Kolpack” April through August.
