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The thrill of a hole in one is contagious

My golf season has started off surprising well! I experienced the thrill of a hole in one!

My golf season has started off surprising well!

I experienced the thrill of a hole in one!

Unfortunately, it was a second hand thrill. The shot was not made by me, but by my 80-something year-old brother in law, who also happens to be my good friend and true partner in crime.

It was on the fifth hole that it happened, the miracle hole in one shot every golfer dreams about, but few ever accomplish.

My brother-in-law, bless his unsuspecting heart, was wandering around eyeballing the trees beyond the green, all the while muttering to himself about lost balls and how he must have overshot.

“Did you look in the hole?” I questioned, daring to voice the remote possibility that the lost ball was actually nestled in the cup, all safe, secure and not really lost at all!

“No,” he said, derisively. “I must have overshot it. I will just drop another one.”

Against all odds, I decided to take a look, anyway.

And there it was!

“It’s in the hole,” I screamed, jumping up and down like a crazy person.

“Is it a Titleist?” he said, calmly.

“It is!” I yelled. “It’s a Titleist.

He finally allowed himself to smile. It was a slow smile that stretched from ear to ear and rivaled the sun.

A hole in one kinda smile!

I took his picture there on the green then with my phone. I was quite pleased with myself, being that I belong to a generation that continues to be amazed at such technology.

The light kind of floating on air feeling that you can’t put on a score card, but very much exists after a hole in one shot trailed along with us as we finished the game.

“I thought I’d overshot,” he said about a zillion times.

And, about a zillion times I replied, “But you didn’t. It was an awesome shot.”

And then we both smiled and carried on to the next hole and it was good.

It is true. Happiness is contagious!

Finally, we finished the game and headed back to the clubhouse.

“Can I buy you a beverage?” I asked.

He said he guessed so, and went to put his clubs away.

Meanwhile, I sashayed up the clubhouse like I owned the joint.

“My partner,” I said, proudly, almost like it was me, “just shot a hole in one.”

My words seemed to get the girl behind the counter all excited, too.

“He gets a jacket and some other stuff and his name on a plaque and ‘wow’ that is really great,” she said. She, too, seemed as pleased as punch.

And so there was more picture taking and, finally, we had our drink and phoned a few people and relived the moment once again and then we went our separate ways and ate our supper and watched a little TV and that was that.

It’s over now.

The hole in one excitement has dwindled down to another one of those “remember when” moments when the world as you know suddenly stops and something good, unexpected and really cool happens.

And, when such a moment happens, it is good.

And when it happens to someone who belongs to your sometimes weird, and slightly wacky, but mostly wonderful family tree, it is even better than good.

It’s awesome!

Treena Mielke is the editor of the Rimbey Review and writes a regular column for The Pipestone Flyer.