Kyle Brossia's golf game had its ups and downs during last week's Ohio Amateur golf tournament in Kettering.

Brossia, a 2004 Eastwood graduate who played four years of golf for the University of Findlay, shot a 6-over 77 last Thursday during the third round at NCR Country Club's 6,952-yard South Course. It wasn't a great round, but what Brossia accomplished during that round was something the game of golf has rarely seen before.

Brossia, 26, shot three consecutive eagles.

“It's a championship-style golf course,” Brossia said. “They have held a PGA Championship and a U.S. Senior Open there. It's probably my favorite course I've ever played. If you're hitting it well and keeping it in the fairways, you can score well. The key was to keep it in the fairway.”

Kyle Brossia

Brossia, who lives in Findlay, qualified for this year's Ohio Amateur by earning medalist honors at a local qualifier at Maumee Bay in late May. He had only played in one other Ohio Amateur tourney “about five or six years ago in the Cleveland area.”

“After I graduated from college (in 2008) I've been playing golf even more and I have a little more desire to play,” Brossia said. “I'm actually better now that I was in college. I'm playing in a lot of local tournaments.”

Brossia opened last Tuesday's first round at NCR with a 74, and he followed with a 72 on Wednesday to make the cut.

“I was feeling pretty good,” he said. “I haven't played a ton of four-day tournaments like that in a while. My goal was to make the cut, but my ultimate goal was to make the top 20. I made the cut and was sitting about 20th and I was pretty happy with that because the top 20 is exempt for (the Ohio Amateur) next year.

“I hit it really good the first two days. I was hitting a lot of greens in regulation. On the first day I hit 13 in regulation and on the second day I hit 15 in regulation. I'm a streaky putter but when I'm on, I can be really good.”

Brossia had “a terrible start” in Thursday's third round. He started off with a par but followed that with a triple bogey on No. 2 and a bogey on the third hole.

“I was not happy,” Brossia said. “I was already trying to figure out how to get it back and finish out strong.”

On the par-4 fourth hole, Brossia hit a good drive down the middle of the fairway, about 115 yards from the hole. He then picked out a sand wedge and let it rip.

“I had a friend from home, Mike Mocek, caddying for me and he said, 'That looks really good' after I hit it,” Brossia said. “It took two bounces and went in the hole.”

Eagle No. 1.
Next up was the par-5 fifth hole, and again Brossia nailed a solid shot in the middle of the fairway.

“My second shot, I wanted to stay right of the green because the green slopes left to right,” he said. “If you get left of the hole, it's really hard to approach the hole. I was trying to stay right and I pulled it left of the green. I had to play a flop shot over a bunker and the pin was just over the bunker. I hit a good shot and it bounced about twice and hit the flag and went in the hole.”

Eagle No. 2.
“My reaction was, I was kind of in shock at that point,” Brossia said. “I was 4-over after three holes and now I'd hit back-to-back eagles and that put me back to par. Now I'm playing pretty good.”

As he approached the par-4 No. 6 tee, Brossia recalled that he'd shot an eagle on that hole the previous day. He just missed an eagle on the same hole on Tuesday.

“When I got up to the tee I was excited to be even-par and still have that hole to play,” Brossia said. “I hit another good drive in the fairway and then I hit a 5-iron from about 210 feet on to about 20 feet from the pin on the green. It was kind of funny because I had a ruling in my group where a guy lost his ball in a hazard and they had to call a rules official because there was another ball next to his. There was about a 15-minute wait until I putted for the eagle.

“I really wasn't bothered too much at that point. Since I had a bad start, I really wasn't thinking about it too much. I hit a putt and it broke about three feet right and kind of slid in the bottom of the cup.

Eagle No. 3.
“I just gave a smile,” Brossia said. “I was pretty excited at that point because my round had turned into a great round at that point. I was playing well and I was back in the tournament to make a run at the top 10.”

Brossia's high school coach at Eastwood, Mike Gardner, said he has scoured the Internet to see if anyone has ever made three straight eagles during tournament play. According to Gardner, it has been done once, in Europe in 1997.

“It's almost unprecedented,” Gardner said. “It's quite a thing. There have been guys get three eagles in one round, but not three in a row.”

Ironically, Brossia's playing group on Thursday included current University of Findlay senior golfer Mike Schmitmeyer.

“After I eagled the first hole, Mike said, 'You're going to have three eagles in a row,' ” Brossia said. “After I made the third one, he came over and gave me a high five and said, 'See, I told you.' ”

Brossia finished the round with a 77, and he ended the tournament with an 83 on Friday.

“I played the front nine at 1-under par for all four days,” he said. “The day I had 77, I didn't hit the ball very good outside of those three holes. I had those three holes, and the rest I kind of struggled with. I got fatigued mentally because it's been five or six years since I played in a four-day tournament.”

Brossia realizes the odds are stacked against him shooting back-to-back-to back eagles ever again.

“I've had two in a row before, which is pretty tough to do,” he said. “I never really thought about (three straight) until after the round when I did it. It's really hard to do because a lot of courses don't set up for that. There's a pretty good chance I'll never do it again. It's a lot more rare than a hole-in-one, so it was pretty neat.”

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