14-year-old scores 1st hole-in-one
In the 22-year history of the Cape Coral Junior Golf Association’s summer program at Coral Oaks Golf Course, only one of its members had ever scored a hole-in-one.
That was until Monday – on hole No. 8.
Playing his fourth hole, Matthew Hale, 14, used an 8-iron from 140 yards to sink a hole-in-one. The last hole-in-one stroked during the program occurred in 1999.
“Everyone was all excited,” said Marianne Drahos, program director and volunteer for many years. “Word spread quickly around the course that someone got a hole-in-one.”
Neither Drahos nor Coal Oaks pro Allen Manguson could think of any other young player to score an ace at the course with the one exception in 1999.
The Gulf Middle School 8th grader, who will enter Cape Coral High School in the fall, also plays baseball in the Cape Coral Junior Little League program, where he was selected to the All-Star team.
Hale was just 9 years old when he first participated in the summer program, and where he acquired his first set of donated clubs.
The junior program runs six consecutive Monday mornings at Coral Oaks and has been serving the maximum of 250 youngsters age 7-18 of all skill levels for the past several years.
Each participant receives instructions from various pros and volunteers before setting out on a nine-hole excursion to finish off the day. Monday was the first session for this year’s program.
The hole-in-one helped Hale put together a round of 52, good enough for fourth overall in Monday’s intermediate division scoring.