Sue Connors couldn’t even see the hole.
Legally blind since birth, Connors was on a company golf outing and had to have the fellows on her team point her in the right direction while teeing off on the second hole.
Hit the ball that way, they said.
Connors, a Lake Orion resident, took a whack with her driver. The ball lifted through some trees, hit the green, and kept rolling–right into the hole.
Connors, who has only golfed a couple of times a summer for three or four years, achieved what many who golf for a lifetime will never achieve: a hole-in-one.
An eagle.
The snazziest, most glamorous accomplishment in the sport.
The shot heard ’round the course.
According to the United States Golf Register, the odds of hitting a hole-in-one are anywhere from one in 20,000 to one in 33,000.
Connors beat the odds at Fieldstone Golf Club of Auburn Hills on Saturday, June 13.
Along with 36 other employees from Eaton Steel, an Oak Park steel bar manufacturer, Conner hit the links for the company’s annual Pink Tee golf outing.
Connors is an administrative assistant at the steel company. She was of only six women playing.
When her team got to the par three, 105-yard hole, her teammates, who were all men, said, ‘Sue, the hole is in that direction. Shoot between those trees.?
Their assistance is due to the fact Connors is legally blind. She was born completely blind with cataract. A procedure in her childhood removed the cataract in one eye and she now has 20/50 vision in that eye and 20/200 in the other. She can drive a car, but with a handicap sticker.
She can also drive a golf ball pretty handily, it seems.
‘It was a totally lucky shot,? Connors said. ‘I was just trying to hit the ball.?
As soon as the ball hit the green and kept going, the guys she was with jumped in the cart and raced to the green.
‘The guys went nuts,? she said. ‘They couldn’t believe it. They were clapping and screaming, ‘It’s in there! It’s in there!??
It helped her team finish with a score of 70, which was 2 under par, and tied for first place.
The occasional golfer said she’s now planning more trips this summer with her father, who, oddly enough, got a hole-in-one on the same course 30 years ago.
As for her, Connors said she’s unlikely to get so lucky again. ‘It’ll never happen again, so I’m happy,? she said.