Boys defy probability with back-to-back aces

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Hanks Massey, 11, and his 9-year-old brother Davis Massey did the (almost) impossible. In back-to-back shots on the par-3 3rd hole at the TPC Sawgrass Stadium course, they both made aces.

Scott Massey

Davis Massey (left) and Hanks Massey pose after both making holes-in-one.

At around 7:30 p.m. on July 10, the two brothers and their father Scott Massey reached No. 3's tee box. It's a 103-yard hole with water to the left of the green, a giant bunker in front and several smaller bunkers behind the pin. Plus, it's in full view of the massive clubhouse and the practice putting green -- no easy shot for anyone, much less two young golfers.

Their dad went first and missed the green. Then it was Hanks' turn. He pulled out his 9-iron, took a swing and watched it sail towards the green. It kicked right then tracked towards the hole but neither Hanks nor Scott could see exactly where it ended up. Was it behind the green in a bunker? Past the flag on the green? In the hole?

Hanks and Scott sprinted up to the green, ran to the cup and found the ball inside. They started whooping and hollering. Scott got out his Blackberry and gave it to Hanks, who called his mom at home and his grandmother in Colorado.

It was around that point that the family remembered something -- Davis hadn't hit his tee shot. He'd joined big brother and his father on the green after Hanks' hole-in-one and returned to the tee box for his shot.

"I trudged back because knew I wasn't going to hit a hole-in-one because it's like a one in one billion chance," Davis said later to the Jacksonville Times-Union.

When Golf Digest calculated the odds for two players making a hole-in-one in the same round, on the same hole, it came out as 17 million to 1. Not exactly one in a billion but certainly not a common phenomenon.

Davis grabbed his 8-iron, swung with ease and what happened next defied probability. Scott and Hanks, still on the phone with his grandmother and giving a play-by-play, watched the ball veer towards the hole.

You can only imagine what was going through their minds. No way that's going to go in, right? Unreal, that's getting closer. It's in the hole!

"Honestly, I think it's lost on them," Scott, a senior director of marketing at the PGA TOUR, said. "They are of course excited about their respective holes-in-one and the odds of that happening and so forth but I think that's a little bit lost on them. I don't think they can quite grasp what 17 million to one means."

Naturally, the local Jacksonville paper hopped on the story. The boys shot a video -- in one take, no less -- with a re-enactment of their aces. But gaining a little fame isn't what they're most excited about. Anyone who makes a hole-in-one at TPC Sawgrass gets their name on a plaque just outside the locker room entrance in the clubhouse.

"Getting their names on those plaques probably mean more to them than anything," said their dad. "Here's the other thing that's funny -- there are some famous (PGA TOUR) names on there, which is so cool, but they are more excited about the fact that one of their golfing buddies is on there. He had one in May and their name is going on there with him.

"Years from now, I think they'll really cherish that names like Greg Norman and other great players are on there."

The boys have played golf nearly all their lives and are devoted to the game in the summer. Like most active boys, once school starts again and football season rolls around, golf will fall to the wayside and they'll renew their love for football.

"It's kind of whatever sport is in season," Scott said. "During the summer they are on fire for golf. But they will be equally on fire for football."

Scott and his wife are trying to stress to the boys that, while holes-in-one do involve skill, much of it is luck. Good grades are an accomplishment, a hole-in-one is about 50 percent chance. Still, the boys will each get a new club for their unbelievable aces.

"We are trying to keep it in perspective that what happened is essentially luck times luck equals a miracle. We are not putting it on par with making good grades in school," Scott said. "There are great golfers who never make a hole-in-one and not-so-great ones that do. It's kind of a whimsical thing."

And a thing that the boys and Dad will remember for the rest of their lives.