
HAYDEN BRICKLEY gets his first hole-in-one April 20 at Whistling Straits’ Irish Course. – Photo by TJ Pitsch
South golfer Hayden Brickley got a hole-in-one before a driver’s license.
“I did not think about that until now,” the 15-year-old said. “That is kind of crazy.”
The sophomore accomplished the feat April 20 at Whistling Straits’ Irish Course by using a pitching wedge on the 128-yard third hole.
“I was obviously hoping to (get one); I didn’t think I’d get it this soon,” Brickley said.
Brickley says he’s come within 12 inches of getting a hole-in-one before, and even birdied No. 3 once or twice.
That day, Brickley was hitting into the wind, so he hit a low shot toward the pin on the left side of the green.
“It ended up working, I guess,” he said. “First, I was a little worried because I didn’t see my ball. And then I thought the only place it could be was in the hole, so I looked, and there it was.”
Coach TJ Pitsch happened to pull up in his golf cart as Brickley was walking off the green when he was told the news.
“At first, I honestly thought he was joking,” Pitsch said. “I think I might have said to him, ‘shut up’ or something like that. ‘Are you serious?’ ‘I’m being dead serious.’ It was awesome.”
Pitsch, who is 25, already has two holes-in-one, including the 13th hole on the same course in 2017.
“I’d say it’s very rare,” he said. “There’s definitely skill, but there’s also luck involved. Obviously the more you play, the better chance you have. I play a lot and I think Hayden plays a lot, but he probably doesn’t play as much as I do. So for him to have one as a 15-year-old is very impressive.”
Brickley admits the rest of his outing wasn’t the best because he was thinking about his amazing shot “the whole time.”
He eventually came home and put the ball he used on his dresser. Other than that, the rest of the night was nothing special, according to Brickley.
“I had to do homework,” he said. “I wasn’t very efficient with homework that night.”
Categories: Sports
Congratulations Hayden!!