Husband, wife sink rare back-to-back aces at same hole

When Tony and Janet Blundy go golfing, their competitive streaks can come out.

But on Sunday, the husband and wife from Portland was celebrating one another's success. They achieved an extremely rare feat, with holes-in-one on consecutive shots at the same hole.

First, Tony drained his at the 16th hole at Ledge Meadows Golf Course in Grand Ledge. Janet followed his tee shot and added her ball into the cup.

And before you ask, yes, there were independent witnesses who verified their back-to-back aces.

"If nobody would have been around, nobody would ever believe us," Tony Blundy said. "We've been laughing about it every time we think about it. It's so unbelievable that it could happen."

According to research done by golf contest prize insurer National Hole-in-One Association in 2013, the odds of an amateur golfer getting a hole-in-one are 12,500-to-1. For two amateurs each making one in the same round as a foursome, the odds climb to 1.3 million-to-1. For two members of a foursome to ace the same hole in the same round, they skyrocket to 26 million-to-1.

But in a twosome? On consecutive shots? They easily would be more than double the foursome odds, a claims adjuster for the National Hole-in-One Association said Wednesday.

What about a husband and wife at the same hole on consecutive shots? The adjustor couldn't even compute the odds, simply describing them as "astronomical."

"I had a feeling. But, you know, everybody gets a feeling that this one's going in," Janet Blundy said about her second career ace. "We have a competitive edge between each other. It was just like, 'Hee hee, you're not gonna get one up on me.'

"They were both just awesome. It was out of this world. Out of control. It was like, 'Oh. My. God. I cannot believe that just happened!'"

The Blundys usually golf at least 18 holes a week together and have for the past 10 years. On Sunday morning, the pair decided to play that day and purchased discounted rounds online for Ledge Meadows. They began their round at 2:20 p.m. on the back nine. It rained off and on.

Around 3:45 p.m. at the No. 16, their seventh hole of the round, 53-year-old Tony went first and one-hopped his 7-iron shot into the cup from 135 yards out. It was the first of his golfing career. The Blundys' hoots and hollers startled the golfers in front of them and on the neighboring fairway.

"You're gonna be really mad at me when I put mine in," Janet told Tony as she stepped to the women's tee box.

Her joke became an even more raucous reality when the 43-year-old planted her pitching wedge tee shot about 6 feet in front of the pin and rolled her shot into the same hole, 110 yards away. Because they caused such a commotion with Tony's ace, they had two strangers (Rose Pfeffer from Charlotte and Diane Knish of Potterville) as their witnesses — an important verification tool to prove their legitimacy.

"We were actually on the other tee box when they hit them in," Knish said. "We went and witnessed the balls in the hole without them even being on the green. That was, like, unreal."

Pfeffer fixed Tony's big divot next to the cup. Pictures were taken. Somehow, the Blundys finished their final 11 holes of their four-hour round. They had two rounds of drinks to buy for the other golfers — per custom for those who make a hole-in-one — and found nobody at the clubhouse but two workers. But by then, their exploits already had filtered back from the course.

"I want to call the Guinness Book of World Records — that's gotta be one," said Ledge Meadows owner Scott Kelly, who was mowing when the word of the twin aces started to spread through his course.

Actually, Guinness Book does not keep hole-in-one records. Officials for the United States Golf Association, in a 2013 story in the Tulsa World, couldn't calculate the odds of a husband and wife each recording an ace — though there have been a few rare instances of couples who have either recorded aces on the same day or who have done it in the same rounds a few holes apart.

But good luck finding another that happened at the same hole, the same day, the same round, minutes apart. The Blundys have something they don't have to fight over — history they can share.

"It's surreal. I keep expecting to wake up and it's a dream," Janet said. "If I do, I'm gonna be mad."