Dick Helmstetter celebrates his birthday with a hole-in-one!
Howie Tiger
On July 6 Dick Helmstetter made a hole-in-one on hole number 17 of the Eagles Nest course. What a way to celebrate his 71st birthday! Since it happened during a regular PebbleCreek Men’s Golf Association (PCMGA) tourney, he now qualifies to share in the 2023 PCMGA annual hole-in-one prize fund along with Brad Johnston.
The tourney format was red, white, and blue to commemorate Independence Day. The 17th hole was played from the white tee with a distance of 128 yards to a front pin located just beyond the sand trap. With a helping wind, Dick hit his 9-iron straight at the flagstick. His ball bounced twice and popped right into the hole for all to see. Jeff Stroup yelled, “That’s in!” Jeff and Dick’s other playing partners, Rick Kesig and Barry Stauffer, praised the birthday boy with high fives all around.
It had already been quite a week on the golf course for Dick. On the previous Friday, he holed out for eagle on hole number 11 on the East course with a 7-iron shot from 144 yards. The next day he holes out for eagle again on #3 East with an 8-iron from 134 yards. So, within a week he holes out with a 7-iron, an 8-iron, and then a 9-iron. Is the wedge next?
Dick has been playing golf for 44 years. This was his second hole-in-one. His first came in 1985 at the New Ulm Country Club in New Ulm, Minn.
Dick grew up in Madison, Minn., and earned his undergraduate degree at Concordia College in Moorhead, Minn. He graduated from dental school at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis. He practiced dentistry from 1979 until his retirement in 2015. That’s when he and his wife, Debra, moved to PebbleCreek.
Congrats on these three amazing shots all in one week. Watch out for that next wedge shot for sure!