Making a hole-in-one is pretty cool.
Getting two of them in the same turn is insane.
It’s crazy to have them in a span of four holes.
That’s exactly what happened to Blade Kurilich. Yep, Blade, that’s his real name. His club of choice for his pair of aces was a 9-iron.
“That club will be hit when I get a new set,” he joked after his round.
Kurilich played Sterling Grove Golf & Country Club in Surprise last week with his regular team. His first hole-in-one came on the third hole, where he did his best Michael Block PGA Championship impression.
“I just hit a 9-iron and actually pounded it right in the hole on the fly,” he said. “I didn’t know it at the time but heard the pin rattling from the tee box. When I got up there, I saw where the ball actually took a bit out of the cup before I saw the ball in the hole.”
Four holes later, Kurilich was on the seventh tee and again held his 9-iron. The hole measured 172 yards, but it was downwind.
“I couldn’t see it over the ridge either. So for both hole-in-ones I had to check the cup to be sure,” he said.
That National Hole-in-One Registry reports that the odds of the average golfer making an ace are 12,000-to-1. Kurilich says he’s +2.4, so the odds for a golfer like him are 5,000-to-1. But this two-ace thing is the real longshot, since the odds of a player making two holes-in-one in the same round are 67 million to 1.
A former baseball player who only took up golf about five years ago, Kurilich had never had a hole-in-one before getting these two.
“After my second hole-in-one, I had promised my friend who was driving up to the green that if it was in, I would dive in the lake,” he said. “Well, I had to back up that promise and dive right in. My game completely tanked after the second one.”
Kurilich worked in finance in Denver, but recently moved to Scottsdale with his fiancé to pursue his dream of professional golf.
Chip shot
Former ASU golfer Azahara Munoz had her best outing of the season at the ISPS Handa World Invitational, a tournament sanctioned by the LPGA and the DP World Tour. Munoz is tied for sixth, finishing with a 6-under 66. … ASU junior Preston Summerhays is among the 10 American amateurs selected to represent the red, white and blue at the 49th Walker Cup at the Old Course in St. Andrews, Sept. 2-3. The Walker Cup is a team competition between the United States and Great Britain and Ireland. … Former Arizona State golfer Chan Kim won his first Korn Ferry Tour event Sunday at the Magnit Championship at Metedeconk National Golf Club in Jackson Township, New Jersey. Kim had a final round 64 to win by three shots. Kim, 33, played one season at ASU and turned pro in 2010. … Team Arizona, consisting of Dylan Boenning, Dallin Delgado, Nicolas Lyman and Hogan O’Malley, placed third at the 2023 Hogan Cup held at Riverside Golf & Country Club in Portland, Oregon, 11.-13. August. San Diego and Southern California were both tied for first at 15-over par as a team.
This article originally appeared on the Arizona Republic: Scottsdale golfer records 2 holes-in-one in span of 4 holes in Surprise