Ron Hansen got his first hole-in-one.
Howie Tiger
On Friday, July 31, Ron Hansen made a hole-in-one on the 16th hole of the west course at Tuscany Falls. After hitting tens of thousands of shots in over 70 years of playing golf, he finally hit that perfect one. He did it while playing with his Wild Bunch golf group.
The par-3 hole played 132 yards from the white tees. The pin was located in the back right portion of the green. With a 20-mph tailwind, Ron hit his 8-iron high and straight at the flag. The ball landed on the front of the green and rolled towards the hole but disappeared over a ridge, which prevented Ron from seeing where the ball finished.
Ron was playing with Chuck Veltri, Skip Holmes, and Mike Cline. Mike also had hit a shot towards the flag. As Ron approached the green, he saw three balls including one on the back fringe. Ron’s ball had unique markings which he called “Rickie Fowler markings.” When he checked out the ball on the fringe, he confirmed that it was not his ball. He looked around some more and then looked in the cup. Low and behold, he yelled, “Yahoo, it’s in the cup!” He had finally done it! The group behind them standing on the tee witnessed the celebration.
Holes-in-one are rare for the Hansen family. Daughter Kelly had one in 1998, after playing golf only three years. At that time, Ron and his son Erik had thought to themselves, “Hey, we are both single-digit handicappers playing for many years and neither of us have an ace.” It took Ron another 22 years to finally get one. As a coincidence, Erik had his first one just a few weeks before Ron’s.
Ron was born in Chicago but lived most of his life in the Sacramento/Bay area of California. He served in the U.S. Air Force and attended Syracuse University. He spent his career in computer hardware and software sales working for several “alphabet” companies, including IBM, CDC, and STK. He retired in 2005 and moved with his wife, Karen, to PebbleCreek. Ron served on the PebbleCreek Men’s Golf Association board for seven years, including his role as president from 2009 to 2010.
Congratulations to Ron for his fabulous shot as well as his perseverance!