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Golfers can go a lifetime without getting the chance to record a hallowed hole-in-one, and if you’re still in search of that elusive achievement, you’ll probably be very, very jealous of the seemingly unprecedented feat Frank Bensel Jr. managed to pull off during the second round of the U.S. Senior Open.
The PGA states the average golfer has a 1 in 12,500 chance of hitting a hole-in-one on any given par 3 (although the odds drop to 1 in 3,000 when it comes to people who play the game for a living).
Based on how the vast majority of golf courses are designed, there aren’t many cases where it’s possible to record aces on back-to-back holes, although Seamus Power was able to defy the approximately 1 in 17 million odds when he achieved that very feat during the Par 3 Contest at The Masters in 2023.
There are three golfers who’ve pulled off a similarly impressive achievement while recording two aces in a single round while competing in a PGA Tour tournament, but none of those instances involved aces on consecutive holes.
I’m going to assume virtually every single person reading this isn’t familiar with Frank Bensel Jr., who’s worked as a golf pro at Century Country Club in Purchase, NY since 2001 and has participated in a handful of PGA Tour and PGA Tour Champions events over the years.
This week, Bensel headed to Newport Country Club for the Senior U.S. Open and kicked off the tournament by recording a 5-over 75 on Thursday.
While he did post five bogeys over the course of the front nine during his second round on Friday, he was only down a single stroke after getting a consolation prize for the ages after hitting a hole-in-one on the 184-yard fourth hole before following it up with another ace on the 203-yard fifth.
As far as I can tell, this is the first time someone has achieved this particular feat in a professional tournament (although one man was able to do the same on back-to-back par 4s earlier this year).
As things currently stand, it doesn’t look like Bensel will be making the cut (he’s tied for 122nd and 16 strokes behind the leader as of this writing), but at least he got a story he’ll be able to brag about for the rest of his life.