Club professional Frank Bensel Jr admitted it was "like an out-of-body experience" to make back-to-back holes-in-one during the second round of the US Senior Open at the Newport Country Club.
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Bensel aced the 173-yard fourth hole with a 6-iron and then followed it up with another hole-in-one on the 202-yard fifth with the same club. Both holes are par-3.
While consecutive holes-in-one are exceedingly rare, it's also unusual for a course to have par-3's on two straight holes, like the set-up at the 7,024-yard, par-70 Newport Country Club this week.
According to the National Hole-in-One Registry, the odds of carding two aces in the same round are 67 million to one. It does not provide odds for consecutive holes.
"I've played a lot of golf in my life and just to see a hole-in-one in a tournament is pretty rare," Bensel said
"The first one was great, so that got me under par for the day. And then the second one, I just couldn't believe it. To even think that that could happen was amazing.
"Hit the ball kind of in the right place and then it just started rolling. I was kidding around and I was like, 'Okay, now let's go for another one', and it happened to go in. Everybody just couldn't believe it. We all went nuts.
"I've got a lot of family and friends here and they were all going crazy, and the guys I played with, same thing, they couldn't believe it. It was amazing.
"This will be remembered obviously forever and ever. After these two holes-in-one, I just didn't even know... it was like an out-of-body experience. I was more excited than I wanted to be."
Bensel is a 56-year-old from Jupiter, Florida. He has played in six PGA Tour events and never made a cut. The three-time Connecticut Open champion is also a golf coach at Century Country Club in Purchase, New York.
Even with the aces, Bensel has had a tough time at the seaside course. He opened the day at 4 over and had back-to-back bogeys to follow up his aces.
It is thought that the only other instance of a player making consecutive holes-in-one during a tournament occurred in even more remarkable circumstances during the 1971 Martini International at Royal Norwich.
John Hudson followed a hole-in-one at the 195-yard 11th with another ace at the par-four 12th, which measured 314 yards. The English golfer went on to finish tied ninth.
The only other USGA championship to have a player card two holes-in-one was at the 1987 US Mid-Amateur when Donald Bliss aced the eighth and 10th holes. Because he started on the back nine, Bliss got a hole-in-one on his first hole of the day and his 17th at Brook Hollow in Dallas.
Australian Associated Press
