On a recent Sunday morning, I was walking the dog with my wife when I received an unexpected call from our 13-year-old son, Grant, who was out playing nine holes with his grandfather.
“Dad,” he started, the excitement evident in his voice. “Paapaa just got a hole-in-one!”
Paapaa is my father-in-law, Steve Earls, who was a little more than a month removed from back surgery when he holed a 6-iron from 150 yards on the par-3 sixth at his home course, Quail Hollow Country Club in rural Oakham, Massachusetts. Grant and his older cousin Miles, another of Steve’s grandsons, were part of the witnessing group, as was Karen Mcdougall, one of Steve’s longtime playing partners. It was Steve’s second ace, the first having come several years earlier on the fourth hole at Quail Hollow.
Grant’s call brightened an already pleasant morning and reminded me of golf’s capacity to produce magical moments in the everyday. And it took me back to a Sunday morning four decades ago when I was fortunate to experience another such moment.
On July 6, 1986, I was 14 and caddying for my father, Jack, at his home course in a regular weekend match in which he and my uncle Bill took on my grandfather, Jack Sr., and great uncle Tommy. On the 13th hole – a 150-yard par-3 playing downhill to a green sloping precipitously from left to right – my dad hit a 9-iron that started farther left than planned, prompting him to slump his shoulders in disappointment. With the pin cut on the bottom right shelf, the shot landed in the left fringe, kicked toward the hole and after rolling down the slope for what seemed like an eternity, disappeared into the cup.
It was my dad’s first ace, and the only one I’ve ever witnessed in person.
A hole-in-one is every golfer’s Holy Grail. My dad’s holds a special place in my memory not just because the golf gods were smiling on him that day, but because I shared in the moment along with my grandfather, uncle and great uncle. The members of that foursome, representing two generations of my family, have all since passed, making the memory all the more precious.
Forty years later, my father-in-law gave his grandsons their own memory to treasure.
Mike Cullity
Top: Steve Earls (center) with grandsons Grant Cullity (left) and Miles Paredes.
COURTESY MIKE CULLITY, GGP
