72-year-old has dual hole-in-ones at Eagles Landing
On September 8, during the Eagle’s Landing Club Championship, Harold “Red” Stanley, age 72, carded two holes-in-one on both back nine par 3s.

On No. 12, Stanley used a 6-iron to hit the 153-yard shot for his first ace. On the next par 3, No. 17, he used a gap wedge to hit a 97-yard shot, “culminating his ultimate golf fantasy,” wrote assistant golf professional Glenn Parsil in a press release.

According to a Golf Digest survey performed in 2000, the odds of having two holes-in-one in the same round are 67 million to 1.

Harold "Red" Stanley (Press photo by Ken Grosjean)

The two members in his flight could not believe their own eyes, Stanley said.

“There was a sort of disbelief on the first one and then the second one they were just stunned,” Stanley said. “We could see that one — the guy put his range finder and he said, ‘That one is in the hole.’ It was stunning.

Stanley said they knew both shots were in the hole before they reached the green, however he didn’t see one of them going in.

“I could see they were in. If it wasn’t on the green or on the pin, it was in the hole. I didn’t see the first one,” Stanley said. “I said, ‘I thought that could go into the hole’ because I could see the line it was on. It did — it was in the bottom.

“The second one was down in the hole, but it didn’t go all the way down because of the flag. But I was able to get the flag out and then the ball came back out.”

Stanley, a native of Sebring, Ohio, was an athlete at McKinley High School. A West Toledo resident, he taught mathematics at a Detroit high school and community college, recently retiring. He started golfing at age 42 and was a member at the historic Inverness Club in West Toledo for 18 years, took a break, and is now returning to the game.

“I retired and took up pottery and I didn’t play golf for a while because we found a house. I went back to golf full time a year ago when I started playing in Florida in the winter and then I played up here last year,” Stanley said.

He became a member of Eagle’s Landing, located along Lake Erie in Oregon, just this year.

“I just do this because I like the place. I like the guys. They are wonderful people out here so I joined and I wasn’t going to beat the two guys who won (the club championship),” Stanley said.

Despite the two holes-in-one, which just in itself was four-under-par, Stanley finished above his handicap, shooting an 85.

Stanley has been working on his game with head professional Matt Bryda, lowering his handicap from 16 to 5 just this year.

“This year I’ve been playing a lot and I’ve been working with Matt Bryda. He’s been so much help. I was not very good when I got here, I’ll tell you that,” Stanley said. “He’s knocked about 10 to 11 strokes off my game.

“I started working with him in June. We film and he’s fantastic — he’s the best teaching pro I’ve ever been around. We talk about golf and I tell him what’s going on and we work on the range. He’s got a digital camera that I can put anywhere on the course that I want to and film myself. I film and put on the computer and study those. My goal this year was to get pretty good at it and I have been. I hit all four par 3’s that day, fortunately, and two of them went in.”

Eagles Landing co-owner John Hatfield called the dual holes-in-one “quite spectacular.” The odds quoted by Golf Digest are even higher than the odds for a double eagle. The double eagle, also known as the albatross, is a rare bird on the golf course, much rarer than the hole-in-one. To make a double-eagle requires acing a par-4 hole or scoring 2 on a par-5 hole.

Double-eagle odds are not definitively known, and different sources give different numbers. The figure of 6-million-to-1 is commonly quoted on the Web and in some print articles, states golf.about.com.

Hatfield’s grandson, Bowling Green State University junior golfer Torey Brummett (Cardinal Stritch), had a double eagle on No. 13 at Eagle’s Landing, but Hatfield cannot recall Brummett hitting two holes-in-one on consecutive par 3s during the same round.

Hatfield says if anyone deserves an “ultimate golf fantasy,” it is Stanley.

“He’s really a super guy,” Hatfield said.

Blausey joins Baer at state
Woodmore senior golfer Billy Blausey competed at the Division III boys state golf tournament over the weekend at the Ohio State University Scarlet Course. Blausey qualified as an individual when his team shot a 79 at the district meet.

He joins Woodmore junior Mikayla Baer, who shot a 78 at district to qualify for the weekend’s D-II girls state meet on OSU’s Gray Course. Both Blausey and Baer are coached by Steve Burner,

District tennis
Clay senior Kylee Ault was a No. 1 seed at the Northwest District Division I singles tennis tournament concluded last Saturday at the University of Findlay. The Clay doubles team of seniors Abbey Herrera and Ann Klewer were a third seed. In D-II, also at UF, Oak Harbor junior Ashley LaFountain was a No. 1 seed.

State equestrian meet
Lake finished the regular season of high school equestrian team shows as the winner of Division 3 in District 2. Lake showed over the weekend at the state competition held indoors at WB Ranch in Swanton competing against Springfield and McComb for the D-3 state title.

D-1 teams competing for the state title are Fremont and Napoleon, and D-2 teams are Anthony Wayne, Erie, and Defiance.

The Ohio Interscholastic Horsemanship Association has 19 teams with 140 riders which were divided into three districts. Information about a team or coaching is available at oihaonline.org.

Sports Announcements
The Genoa athletic department will hold its mandatory parent/student meeting for winter sports programs on Oct. 24 at 7:30 p.m. in the high school auditorium. The meeting is for parents and students who will be participating in a winter sport, grades 7-12.

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