NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — The subsequent spherical in Newport is on Frank Bensel — and make it a double.
The 56-year-old membership professional from New York made back-to-back holes-in-one on the U.S. Senior Open on Friday — a primary within the 1,001-tournament historical past of the USGA and believed to be the one time it’s occurred on any main golf tour.
“It was like an out-of-body expertise,” Bensel stated earlier than posing for footage with the ball, 6-iron and pin flags from the fourth and fifth holes at Newport Nation Membership.
“I’ve performed lots of golf in my life, and simply to see a hole-in-one in a match is fairly uncommon,” he stated. “The primary one was nice; that bought me underneath par for the day. After which the second, I simply couldn’t consider it. To even assume that that might occur was superb.”
It was simply the second time a golfer has made two holes-in-one in the identical spherical in any USGA occasion because the inaugural U.S. Novice was held in Newport in 1895. Donald Bliss aced the eighth and tenth holes within the 1987 U.S. Mid-Novice at Brook Hole in Dallas; as a result of he began on the again 9, Bliss made a hole-in-one on his first and his seventeenth holes of the day.
In response to the Nationwide Gap-in-One Registry, the chances for one participant making two aces in the identical spherical are 67 million to 1. The chances of aces on consecutive holes aren’t recognized, however few programs have consecutive par-3s just like the 7,024-yard, par-70 A.W. Tillinghast course on the mouth of Narragansett Bay.
They had been Bensel’s thirteenth and 14th holes-in-one in a profession that features appearances in three PGA Championships and the 2007 U.S. Open; he has by no means made a reduce on the PGA Tour. He stated his profession spotlight was capturing a 67 at Southern Hills on the 2021 Senior PGA Championship.
Or not less than it was once.
“After these two holes-in-one, I simply didn’t even know,” stated Bensel, who teaches at Century Golf Membership in Westchester County in the summertime and Mirasol in Palm Seaside Gardens, Florida, within the winter. “Oh, yeah. All people goes to need a lesson now, for certain — on a 6-iron.”
Enjoying along with his 14-year-old son, Hagen, as caddie, Bensel was 4 over after the primary spherical and made a bogey on the second gap on Friday. When he bought to No. 4, a 173-yard par 3, his son really helpful a 7-iron however Bensel knew he didn’t wish to depart it brief.
The ball landed on the entrance of the inexperienced, hopped a number of occasions and rolled into the cup. On the fifth tee, Bensel pulled out his 6-iron once more and took goal on the pin 202 yards away.
“I attempted to calm him down. Simply deliver him again, ?” stated Hagen Bensel, who was named after Corridor of Famer Walter Hagen. “He landed it completely. And he was like, ‘How ‘bout one other one?’ whereas it was taking place.”
Frank Bensel adopted up his consecutive aces with back-to-back bogeys. He completed the day at 4-over 74 and was sure to overlook the reduce.
“I didn’t do something nice aside from sort of these photographs at present,” Bensel stated. “I hoped that I may have added much more good scoring after that to have made the reduce, however that didn’t occur.”
Nonetheless, his membership, ball and glove are headed for the USGA’s museums in Liberty Nook, New Jersey, and Pinehurst, North Carolina, so Hagen Bensel will quickly have an opportunity to see the artifacts — and study extra about his namesake.
“I don’t know a lot (about Walter Hagen),” he stated. “I don’t take note of my dad and mom that a lot, as a lot as I ought to. However I do know that he was a terrific golfer, among the best to ever do it.”
Requested what was subsequent for him, Frank Bensel stated: “The unique plan was to get some sleep and prepare for tomorrow, however received’t want to do this.
“We’re going to have time and sort of lay again,” he stated, nodding towards his son. “He needs to play golf someplace. Anyone know the place he can go play?”
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