Jun 14, 2015 4 min read

Chris Lemons has been golfing since he was 8 years old and had some satisfying rounds in that time.

But nothing compared to the two rounds he played last week, both of which produced holes-in-one on back-to-back days at different courses.

“I didn’t believe it,” said Lemons, a senior at Trinity High School and a member of the Hillers’ golf team. “It blew my mind.”

The rare feat began June 7 at the Golf Club of Washington, where Lemons works as a pro shop assistant. He launched a 7-iron from the No. 5 hole from 150 yards. He and his playing partners – Bob Lemons, Craig Bush and Patrick Bush – thought it was a good shot.

“It’s a blind tee shot,” he said. “I never even saw it go in. When we got to the green, I couldn’t see the ball. I walked to the hole and there it was.”

No such problem June 8 during a round at Village Greene Golf Course in Hickory. Lemons used the same 7-iron from his Nike VR Pros for his tee shot on the 152-yard par-3. It landed on the sloped green, checked up and rolled into the cup, all from a perfect view from the raised tee box.

“What are the odds of that happening?” Lemons asked.

Golf Digest Magazine did a study of holes-in-one over a 30-year period (1983-2013) with some interesting findings. The odds of making a hole-in-one is 2,500-to-1 … if you are a pro, 12,500-to-1 if you’re an amateur. Lemons is a 5 handicap, so he is better than a lot of amateurs.

Golf Digest puts the odds of two amateurs getting a hole-in-one in the same round at 1.3 million-to-1 and did not have odds listed for Lemons’ feat.

Interestingly, Lemons’ accomplishment is somewhat similar to the feats of at least three other golfers from Western Pennsylvania. Two years ago, Dom Debonis of Saltsburg had holes-in-one on three consecutive days at three different courses in Myrtle Beach, S.C. The Sharpsburg native actually had four holes-in-one in a 33-day period.

Oh, he was 81 years old when he did it.

That feat was so rare the National Hole-in-One Association, which among other things provides insurance for outings for holes-in-one, never calculated the odds of that happening.

Brendon Todd, a PGA golfer who grew up in Peters Township and is now on the PGA Tour, had holes-in-one on back-to-back days while playing on the Nationwide Tour’s Athens Regional Foundation Classic in 2009. He was the first player in the then 20-year history of the tour to accomplish that feat.

The third Western Pennsylvania player to come close to matching Lemons’ feats is Arnold Palmer, who had back-to-back aces on consecutive days, Sept. 2-3 during the 1986 Chrysler Cup Pro-Am at the TPC at Avenel in Potomac, Md. He aced the 182-yard 3rd hole on consecutive days, a feat that was never done before or since in professional golf.

Lemons now has three aces in his career. His best 9-hole round was a 34 and 18-hole round was a 75, both coming at the Golf Club of Washington.

“I kept the golf balls,” said Lemons, who plays three times a week. “I’ll probably mount them on a wall.”