Steve Menchinella, PGA director of golf at Sunnyside Country Club in Fresno, has made 11 holes in one but in an outing this week at nearby Airways Golf Club he had the greatest golf achievement of his 75 years.
Menchinella, while playing with three other pros, didn’t need his putter while going 2-2-1 with birdie-eagle-ace in a three-hole span while shooting 2-under-par 67.
“The most memorable (previous hole in one) may have been when I made one during the section championship, but I’ve never done anything like this before,” said Menchinella said, who is known as the “Godfather of Golf” in Northern California.
His run started on the 130-yard, par-3 fifth hole, where Menchinella came up short of the green with his tee shot, but chipped in for his birdie.
Menchinella, a PGA Lifetime Member, hit a good drive on the par-4 sixth hole before hitting his second shot with a 9-iron from 121 yards out. His golf ball bounced twice before diving into the ole.
“I didn’t see it go in, but I heard someone say that it was in,” Menchinella said. “So we are just celebrating and laughing and having another beer going to the next tee.”
Menchinella went right back to the 9-rion for his tee shot on the 120-yard, par-3 seventh and everyone in his foursome saw the ball fly straight at the pin, land barely short and roll into the hole.
His front nine score was 31 and he didn’t write anything higher than a 5 on his scorecard all day.
“I was thinking that maybe I should put the club in a bronze mold or something,” Menchinella said of his 9-iron.
Then he went to the driving range a few days later and his first shot with the club was a dead shank.
