GLOBE NORTHWEST 1 / SPORTS
He gets a hole in one and doesn't even see it!
It's the dream of every golfer, young and old, and Chris Kennedyof Lowell is no exception. He has dreamed of a hole-in-one for 53years. And, after thousands of rounds of golf, a near miss or two orthree times, the dream finally came true late last month. Onlyproblem is, Kennedy never saw it. His playing partners did, thegroup in front of him did, but Kennedy didn't. Seems he waspreoccupied picking up his tee.
'Can you imagine,' he mused, 'after playing for so many years, Ifinally get what every golfer wants, and I don't see it go in thecup. I mean, I knew I hit it good and that it was heading for theflag, but when you've been playing for 53 years, you just don'tthink of it happening. So after I hit it, I bent down to pick up mytee. My partners told me it went in, but I didn't believe them untilI saw it in the hole. That's when I got a little excited.'
Kennedy's ace came on the difficult par-3, 177-yard, 14th hole atVesper Country Club in Tyngsborough, where he has been a member for28 years. He used a 5-iron. Holes-in-one are rare on the 14th,because the Merrimack River flows in front of the tee and the greenslopes from front to back. There's a tree to the right of the greenand a bunker to the left.
'A typical Donald Ross hole,' joked Kennedy, now 61, who caughtthe golf bug way back 'when I was an 8-year-old and a caddy atOakley Country Club in Watertown.'
The closest Kennedy had come before this was 'about half an inchaway' at Abenaqui Country Club in Rye, N.H.
Kennedy knows just how much luck - more so than skill - isinvolved in a hole-in-one.
'It's a stroke of luck, that's all it is,' Kennedy, who plays toa 6 handicap, said. 'Even on the pro level, so much luck is involvedin making one. What was most important to me that day was that Ishot a 1-under 71. I was playing well, and often when you're playingwell and something like that happens, the rest of the round dropsoff. That didn't happen to me. I was even par at that point and Istayed the course.'
Until the hole-in-one, Kennedy's claim to fame were the twodouble eagles he had scored - one at the par-5, 480-yard 5th atVesper and the other on the par-4, 480-yard 18th at Blue HillsCountry Club in Canton. 'Those,' he stressed, 'are more rare thanholes-in-one.'
Kennedy joined his daughter, Meara Kennedy-Golden of Lowell, whoscored an ace several years ago, also at Vesper, in the hole-in-oneclub.
'She certainly didn't have to wait as long as I did,' he joked.
Around 'n' about
Andover native Ryan Hanigan has been chosen to play in theInternational League All-Star game Wednesday in Louisville. Haniganis a catcher for the Louisville Bats, the Triple A affiliate of theCincinnati Reds. Through the first 50 games of the season, he wasbatting .295 with 3 home runs, 22 RBIs, and 25 runs scored. He'salso thrown out 36 percent of potential base stealers. ... BrianWilson of Londonderry, N.H., is the ace of the San Francisco Giantsbullpen, and his 24 saves earned him a spot on the National LeagueAll-Star team. ... He's still two years away from college, butCentral Catholic junior basketball phenom Carson Desrosiers isalready part of the college recruiting hunt. New Hampshire andFordham have made offers to the 6-foot, 6-inch junior, and BostonCollege, Syracuse, Notre Dame, Penn State, Purdue, and Providencehave been knocking on his door. ... Mark Fisher of Newton and ErinWyner of Medford were the men's and women's 5-mile winners of the19th annual Sons of Italy Road Race in Lawrence. Kevin Alliette andChristie Fox, both of Methuen, topped the 3.1-mile field. More than250 runners participated. ... Former Methuen and Dartmouth All-American Sean Furey turned in a strong performance in the US OlympicTrack and Field Trials in Eugene, Ore. He threw the javelin 241feet, 3 inches and finished seventh overall. He qualified for thefinals with a throw of 243-4.
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