Stroke of luck

It wasn’t that great of a round and, to her own admission, Bigfork’s Jan Quessenberry was ready to pack up her clubs after nine holes last week at Eagle Bend Golf Club and get a drink in the clubhouse.

Thank goodness she didn’t quit.

Quessenberry, who calls Eagle Bend her home course for most of the year, hit a hole-in-one on both of the two par-3 holes on the Bear course in her back nine, a feat she, literally couldn’t even dream of.

“A week before I got that hole-in-one, I’d dreamt I got a hole-in-one,” Quessenberry said.

“After the second, my friend asked if I’d dreamed I got two hole-in-ones. I said, ‘No.’”

Golfing with her friends Jan Pisko, Mary Exner and Irene Turley, Quessenberry figured after nine holes she’d had enough, but was convinced to stay out and finish the round.

The par-3 12th, playing at 124 yards, started off unassuming, at least to Quessenberry, after hitting a 3-wood off the tee.

“I thought it wasn’t going in,” Quessenberry said. “I had turned around and gone to the cart and everybody started yelling. I’ll be darned if it didn’t go right in the hole.

“It trickled right into the cup.”

Her friends, rightfully excited, called Quessenberry’s husband before he went in for a scheduled doctor’s appointment.

“She called him and said, ‘You’ll never believe this, but Jan hit a hole-in-one.’”

Just four holes later, on the 101-yard 16th, they got to call again.

“She called again and said, ‘You’re really not going to belive this, Jan shot another hole-in-one.’

“My husband, Jim, said, ‘No way. You’re not telling me the truth.’

“He didn’t believe it until he got to the clubhouse and found out that it was true.”

That shot she was more sure of. She hit a perfect 7-iron that never was a doubt to go in the hole.

“I thought that was a really good hit and saw that go right in the hole.

“I never even thought about getting a hole-in-one. I certainly didn’t think about getting two.”

The feat came with quite the party with her and her husband buying their friends the customary round of drinks in the clubhouse and dinner afterwards.

After 50 years of playing golf, it is her third hole-in-one in the last few months, also hitting an ace in a couples tournament at Del Paso Country Club in Sacramento, California.

She’s tried her hand since at the same holes on Eagle Bend to no avail.

Just a few days later she played the same hole on No. 12 and scored a double-bogey 5.

Still, for one round, she had a story every golfer dreams of.

Or, at least, almost dreams of.

“It was exciting. I was really thrilled to death. I’ll probably never get another one, but that’s enough for a lifetime.”