Doubling Down

A random Google search puts the odds of an amateur making a hole-in-one during a round of golf at about 12,500 to 1. Two aces in the same round: 67,000 to 1. As for the prospect of jarring shots from the tee on consecutive par-3s, the number jumps to an astronomical 162,500,000 to 1.

Well, say hello to Donna Duncan, oddsmakers. A retired banking executive, Donna aced the 12th and 16th holes at the Club at Old Hawthorne in Columbia, Mo., on Friday, her husband, Jim, in tow.

“I don’t think it’s sunk in yet,” Donna said by phone later that afternoon.

Built on rolling farmland, Old Hawthorne is home to the University of Missouri golf teams and The Stampede, the best damn member-guest in the land. The 12th is an uphill par-3, and on this day the pin was cut front-left. It was playing 67 yards for Donna, who groused to Jim that she was between clubs before settling on a 9-iron. Jim told his bride to put a good swing on it, then drove up the cart path and parked left of the green. From the tee, the cup isn’t visible pretty much wherever it’s cut on the green, but Jim had a ringside seat. Donna’s ball landed about four feet short of the pin and trickled in.

Donna excitedly texted head professional Max Frericks to report her feat.

The 16th features a diabolical green and has a creek that runs in front and bends right of the putting service. Another penalty area looms long. Donna had safely tucked away her hole-in-one prize from 12 and was now playing with a ball Jim had broken out of a sleeve. “Oh, great,” Jim recalled thinking as she teed up her ball. “I hope she doesn’t hit it in the creek.”

The hole was playing 97 yards and the pin was cut back-right. Donna reached for her 4-hybrid. Not that she was crazy about her club selection. “I can’t hit it at all,” she said. “I’ve got a hybrid on order to replace it. It hasn’t come in yet.”

This time the ball landed about six feet short and left of the pin. Jim thought she had hit it close, but the ball had disappeared behind one of the several mounds that define the undulating surface. When the couple walked onto the green, there was no ball around the cup. Donna assumed it had rolled off the back. Then they checked the hole.

The shiny orb had found the bottom of the cup. Again.

“I thought I was going to have heart palpitations after the second one,” Jim said.

Two aces. On consecutive par-3s. In a five-hole stretch. On the same back nine.

“I told Jim, ‘You’re going to have to call Max and tell him I made another one because he’s not going to believe me,’” Donna said with a chuckle.

She took up golf around the time Old Hawthorne opened in 2007 and was a once-a-week golfer before retiring in March 2023. Now she gets out three or four times a week. She carries a 23.6 index, and on Friday she posted an 89. The math was understandably easier on her back-nine 41.

Oh, and she’s no novice to this hole-in-one business. About a month ago, with the pin front-left on the same 16th hole, Donna dunked her trusty 9-iron for her first career ace.

Jim, meanwhile, has been playing for more than four decades, and has a solitary ace to show for his efforts.

The Duncans will toast to their 49th wedding anniversary later this month. They’ll have an incredible accomplishment to reminisce about as well.

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