Showing four aces

BRYCE ALDERTON

Sinking a hole-in-one alone is an accomplishment every golfer strives

to achieve.

I’m still trying after 13 years of playing this crazy game.

But when I heard Sid DuPont’s story, I nearly fell out my chair in

amazement.

The 63-year-old DuPont, a Newport Beach Country Club member,

tallied two hole-in-ones in less than a week.

In back-to-back rounds, four days apart no less.

DuPont aced the par-3 203-yard eighth hole Oct. 24 with a 5-wood

alongside witnesses Jack Ericsmoen, Craig Carlson and John Fries.

Then on Oct. 28, DuPont, the headmaster at Harbor Day School in

Corona del Mar, struck paydirt on the par-3 13th hole using a 4-iron

alongside playing partner Stu Goodell.

“I called [the 4-iron shot on 13] in the air,” said DuPont, who

has four hole-in-ones to his credit, including two on Newport Beach’s

13th. “[The ball] hit 5 feet in front of the hole and rolled in.”

Newport Beach Country Club head pro Paul Hahn believes the four

days between aces is a club record.

“The only other thing we’ve had close to that is Duke Libby had a

hole-in-one on the identical day one year apart,” Hahn said.

DuPont said his two ace shots had similar trajectory -- they each

sailed left-to-right.

Once the latest ace fell in the hole, DuPont, who began playing

golf when he was 8, said he may need to explore this streak of

fortune.

“I better start buying lottery tickets and betting in [Las]

Vegas.”

DuPont’s other ace on 13 came on Sept. 28, 2000, when he used a

5-iron from 172 yards.

While he might shift the reason to his recent spate of success on

the links to luck, those hole-in-ones didn’t come without some long

hours on the course.

DuPont, who carries a 7 handicap, said he plays an average of 275

times a year. Granted, not all those rounds cover the full 18. He

might sneak in six holes in the late afternoon before heading home.

Two days after his most recent ace, on Oct. 30, DuPont came to the

13th tee with a 5-iron in hand.

He struck the ball cleanly, and it stopped 10 feet from the hole.

DuPont is quickly striking any notion of “13” carrying an ominous

tag.

But just because every shot at 13 lately seems to go where he

wants, DuPont still feels those butterflies from time-to-time.

“I’m the type of golfer who gets nervous even if there is a $10

bill on the shot,” he said. “I just step up and try to hit the thing

and get the ball on the green and if it happens to get in the hole,

fabulous. Luck is better than good.”

To commemorate his “luck,” Hahn is having a framed plaque made for

DuPont that will include the ball and scorecard from each round

matted inside a shadowbox that is 2 1/2 inches deep.

“It’s expensive, they make you buy the plaque,” DuPont said. “But

this could be it. I will leave it for my [three] grandchildren.”

DuPont, who is married and lives in Newport Coast with wife Renee,

has two similar plaques for his first two hole-in-ones hanging on the

wall in his office at school.

His first hole-in-one came April 9, 1988, at the Moravian Hills

Country Club in Detroit.

He used an 8-iron on the 145-yard fourth hole.

“That one landed [in the hole] on the fly, it was a slam dunk,”

DuPont said.

But DuPont was equally proud of a shot he hit from near the snack

bar, which stands to the left of the ninth green -- about 50 yards

away, during his round Oct. 28.

After taking a free drop, DuPont’s fourth shot on the par-4 ninth

lipped out of the hole.

“Perhaps that was more difficult than a hole-in-one,” DuPont said.

The achievements, though, don’t come without a price tag, Dupont

said.

“People will say, ‘Good job,’ now buy us some drinks.”