When Adele Striker hit her driver on the Number 5 hole at Harrison Hot Springs Golf Course, the early morning sun was blinding and she was unable to see where her ball landed.
Striker has been playing golf with the Agassiz Harrison Ladies’ Golf Club for twenty-five years, and managed her first hole-in-one just recently.
Striker and her friends spent a few minutes looking for the ball before seeking help from one of the men following them (as she did not want to take a stroke-and-distance penalty for a lost ball).
Then, one of the men sank his ball into the cup, “and I remember someone saying, ‘Well, there are two balls in the hole,’ says Striker.
The women rejoiced; happy for the first hole-in-one among the group and relived that the ball wasn’t lost. “The other two ladies were most gracious,” says Striker, “they were even more excited than I was!”
Striker first began golfing because her husband played and she wanted to be able to join him, she also liked the appeal of a challenging individual sport. So challenging in fact that a hole-in-one at Harrison is considered rare, as the par 3 holes are especially long and difficult for women to drive in one shot.
Max Bannerman was a professional golfer at Harrison for thirty years and managed sixteen of his own hole-in-ones. “In all my years there very few women managed a hole-in-one,” says Bannerman. “It’s considered a big deal for most people as they are difficult to obtain.”
Striker says she will “remember it forever,” because as she continues to play the game she loves on the green, she expects a hole-in-one to only happen once.