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Golfers beat odds with double aces

Matt Riddle

One in 30,000. Depending on who you talk to, those are the odds of hitting a hole in one.

One in 900 million, or 30,000 squared. Those are the odds of two people hitting a hole in ones back to back.

Either way, July 15 saw back to back hole in ones at the Tahoe Donner Golf Course in



Truckee, a third less than a month later on the same course, and then a pro made the shot at Coyote Moon for the Reno/Tahoe Open qualifier Aug 19.

“I knew it was going to be close the moment it left the club,” Kevin Redner said on his Aug. 11 shot at Tahoe Donner.



Retired San Francisco firemen Frank Kelly and Tom Lovely hit the back to back hole in ones in the same foursome.

The two were on the seventh hole of Tahoe Donner for their shots. The hole is 146 yards and they both used nine irons.

“You don’t get them too often,” Lovely said. “It was a good shot.”

For Lovely it was his second hole in one, the first one came more than six years ago at DeLaveaga Golf Course in Santa Cruz.

Lovely said he finished with 85 strokes and Kelly with 79 on the par 72 course.

Tahoe Donner resident Redner, a registered nurse, hit one of those shots that golfers only dream about August 11.

“It was awesome,” he said. “I’ve played for 23 years and sort of resigned myself to never getting one.”

Redner made his shot with a four iron on the par 4, 201 yard fourth hole.

“I hit a 77, which isn’t very good by my standards,” he said.

In the qualifier round of the Reno/Tahoe Open Aug. 19, Darren Black from Lewiston, Idaho, used a five iron the 16th hole. It was 212 yards on a par 3 hole.


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