Two hole-in-ones

Ted Lopez considers himself a novice golfer, but what the Costa Mesa

resident accomplished during a recent nine-hole round would make any

accomplished player jealous.

Lopez, 40, playing a casual round with three friends on the back

nine of Costa Mesa Golf & Country Club’s Los Lagos course early Aug.

13, tallied aces on both the 11th and 17th par-3 holes, using a

6-iron and the same Titleist each time.

He saw the ball trickle into the cup on 17, but the tee shot on

the 11th provided suspense for Lopez and playing partners: brothers

Nathan, 11, and Tommy Stephens and Andy Warner.

“I knew the ball hit the green (on 11), but as we walked up to the

hole, we couldn’t see it,” Lopez, who started playing golf regularly

six months ago, said.

The lip of a bunker, which fronts the 11th green’s right side,

shielded any view of the cup from the tee that day, Lopez said.

“I had a crappy drive and a crappy second shot,” Tommy Stephens

said. “[Lopez] thought my second shot was his drive. We looked in the

hole and there it was.”

Lopez used the back-side hump of the right bunker on 17 to sink

his second ace. The ball glanced off the mound and gently rolled into

the cup, positioned front left, Tommy Stephens said.

“Andy and I looked at each other and he said, ‘You didn’t do it

again?’” Lopez said. “It almost felt like I broke a window; that I

would be in trouble for doing something I’m not supposed to be able

to do.

“I didn’t fathom how rare it is to get one.”

According to the United States Golf Register, the nation’s

official historical registry of hole-in-ones, the odds of tallying an

ace are one in 33,000. Norman Manley has made the most hole-in-ones,

59, the registry’s website said. Manley carded his first in 1964 and

holed four tee shots in 1979.

Both Stephens brothers said the only hole-in-ones they witnessed

came on miniature golf courses.

Lopez still had incentive heading into the par-5 18th. Warner

reminded him a par would accomplish Lopez’s goal of breaking 50 for

nine holes.