• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Muddy River News
  • Podcasts
    • What the Schuck
    • Schuck on a Truck
    • Muddy River Breakdown

Muddy River Sports

Our Home. Our Sports.

  • Home
  • Top Stories
  • Quincy
  • Hannibal
  • Illinois
  • Missouri
  • College
  • Outdoors
  • Pressbox
  • Trending
  • Video
  • Shop
Home » Sports » Crim: Obert’s feat of aces in back-to-back rounds defies golf’s already long odds
The Don Crim section is sponsored by:

Crim: Obert’s feat of aces in back-to-back rounds defies golf’s already long odds

May 23, 2022 — by Don Crim, Senior Columnist

Tom Obert poses with the seven golf balls he has kept from making holes-in-one, the last two of which came in back-to-back rounds at Westview Golf Course. Submitted photo

QUINCY — Tom Obert continues to defy the odds on the golf course.

The 66-year-old Quincy man scored holes-in-one in back-to-back rounds May 8 and 10 at Westview Golf Course and narrowly missed a third a day later. They were the sixth and seventh aces he has recorded in the last dozen years, which, in itself, puts him in select company.

“To get one is lucky, but to get one two days in a row is crazy,” he admitted. “The only thing I don’t like about the (unwritten) rules of golf is the one who gets the hole-in-one has to buy. We have a few guys who like to partake in cocktails.”

To put Obert’s feats into perspective, the odds of an average golfer making a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1, according to the National Hole-in-One Registry.

The Registry notes there are 450 million rounds of golf played each year in the U.S. and each course reports an average of between 10 to 15 aces annually. Basically, that means a hole-in-one is scored in every 3,500 rounds.

Moreover, only 1 to 2% of golfers score an ace each year, and only 9% of all golfers have made three or more aces. And, according to Golf Digest, there is a 5.7 million-to-1 chance for an amateur to make a hole-in-one two days in a row.

“Any hole-in-one is just luck,” said Obert, who carries of handicap of between 5 and 6 and generally scores in the 70s on the par-71 Westview tract. “When you hit a good shot, you never think it is going in. To put a ball in a hole that small is crazy.”

Obert is among a group of players who tee it up at noon every Tuesday and Wednesday at Westview, and at 9 a.m. on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, weather permitting. 

He said all are between 65 and 70 years old and retired. The group usually consists of around 10 players during the week and up to 20 on weekends.

Two years ago, the group gained some notoriety when four different players, including Obert, scored aces in a single year at Westview. Three of those came during a mind-boggling 12-day stretch in late July and early August.

The group’s hole-in-one drought ended this month.

Obert’s first ace came with an 8-iron from 125 yards on the downhill ninth hole on a blustery Sunday afternoon.

“It was a blue pin (on the back of the green) and windier than heck,” he said. “We could see it going toward the hole. We didn’t see it go in, but I thought I heard a click. Sure enough when we got down there it was in the cup.”

Two days later, standing at about the same yardage with the same club on the par-3 15th hole under considerably milder weather conditions, his tee shot landed 10 feet short of the pin and gently rolled in.

“Nobody cut me on the greenies,” Obert said with a laugh. “Won a skin, too.”

The following day, on the par-3 11th hole, his tee shot ran just past the cup, barely missing what would have been a third ace in as many rounds, which would have been off the charts.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God,’ ” Obert said of watching the ball track toward the cup. “I might never had heard the end of it. When you get hot, you get hot, I guess.”

Obert said his father, Virgil, helped build Cedar Crest Country Club and he played golf growing up. However, he said he transitioned to fast-pitch softball in his 20s and concentrated on that sport until retiring from a career in construction in his mid-50s.

It was then that he decided to return to golf on a regular basis and tend to his rental properties. He has since enjoyed the kind of hole-in-one success most golfers cannot imagine.

He has the bar tabs to prove it.

“The camaraderie is more important than the golf,” Obert said. “We’re lucky to have enough guys to play. I don’t know what I would do if we didn’t have our little games, the greenies. It’s fun.”

And the odds be damned.

Miss Clipping Out Stories to Save for Later?

Click the Purchase Story button below to order a print of this story. We will print it for you on matte photo paper to keep forever.

Purchase Story

Filed Under: Don Crim, Pressbox Tagged With: Don Crim, Hole-in-one, Tom Obert, Westview Golf Course

Primary Sidebar

MUDDY RIVER SHOWCASE BROADCAST

https://youtu.be/vgCAVRwXyPE

Scoreboard

Scoreboard for Wednesday, May 18

Prep baseball At Ferd Niemann Jr. Memorial Ballfield, Quincy Class 2A QND Regional Quincy Notre Dame 13, Athens 3. Click here for the story and photo gallery. At Maroa, Ill. Class 2A Maroa-Forsyth Regional Williamsville 6, Pittsfield 4: A five-run third inning by the Bullets put … ...Read Full Article about Scoreboard for Wednesday, May 18

Scoreboard for Tuesday, May 17

Girls soccer At Advance Physical Therapy Field, Quincy Class 1A QND Sectional Quincy Notre Dame 6, Piasa Southwestern 0. Click here for the story. At Kahok Stadium, Collinsville, Ill. Class 3A Collinsville Regional Edwardsville 1, Quincy High School 0. Click here for the … ...Read Full Article about Scoreboard for Tuesday, May 17

Trending Posts This Week

  • Wallace considers Adams County Speedway to have ‘best modified drivers in the U.S.’
    QUINCY — Kenny Wallace has long had a love affair with Quincy in general and Adams County Speedway in particular....
  • Crim: Growth of QTown Tournaments is ‘win-win across the board’ for youth baseball, softball and Quincy
    QUINCY — Youth baseball had a different look when Darin Dodd was a player. “Traveling” for competition then meant driving...
  • Racing Notebook: Becerra new No. 1 in modified rankings; Grossman takes over top spot in 4-Cylinders
    QUINCY — Two new drivers top the Muddy River News Dirty Thirty dirt-track racing rankings. Carthage's Austen Becerra has unseated...
  • Willing puts finishing touches on back-to-back city tennis singles championships
    QUINCY — Zach Willing finally got to finish what he started. A year ago, in the championship match of the...
  • Photo Gallery: UMP Summer Nationals Hell Tour
    The 37th annual UMP Summer Nationals Hell Tour landed in Quincy on Wednesday night. Photographer Lisa Wigoda caught the action...

Briefs

Advance Physical Therapy, Blessing teaming up to offer free sports physicals June 28, July 19

by Muddy River News

QUINCY —  Advance Physical Therapy, Blessing Orthopedics and Sports Medicine and Blessing Physician Services are teaming up to host two free opportunities for sports physicals on June 28 and July 19 by appointment only. The exams are for children entering grades 5-12, except students entering … ...Read Full Article about Advance Physical Therapy, Blessing teaming up to offer free sports physicals June 28, July 19

Sports physicals offered throughout Hancock County by Memorial Medical Clinics

by Muddy River News

CARTHAGE — Memorial Medical Clinics is offering sports physicals at its sites in Bowen, Carthage, Colchester, LaHarpe and Nauvoo. Walk-in sports physicals will be offered: Tuesday, July 12 from 4-6 p.m. in Colchester, 110 Market, 309-776-3301Wednesday, July 13, from 1-4 p.m. in Carthage, 1450 … ...Read Full Article about Sports physicals offered throughout Hancock County by Memorial Medical Clinics

Golf tournament on July 1 at Cedar Crest to benefit QHS girls basketball

by Muddy River News

QUINCY — The Quincy High School girls basketball team will sponsor a golf tournament Friday, July 1, at Cedar Crest Country Club, 3312 N. 36th. The format is a four-person best ball tournament with a shotgun start at 10 a.m. Entry fee is $75 per person or $300 per team. Lunch will be provided as … ...Read Full Article about Golf tournament on July 1 at Cedar Crest to benefit QHS girls basketball

Our Most Recent Podcasts

  • MUDDY RIVER BREAKDOWN: Eighinger’s Adams County Speedway update May 13, 2022
  • Stevie Mud: The Broadway Bullring is back, baby! May 6, 2022
  • What the Schuck? April 29: Chris Duerr, KHQA April 29, 2022
  • What the Schuck: Talking Baseball with Ben Marth April 7, 2022
  • What the Schuck? Chris Duerr, KHQA March 31, 2022
  • What the Schuck? for February 16: Chris Duerr, KHQA February 16, 2022
  • Muddy River Breakdown: Remembering Harry Wagy January 12, 2022
  • What the Schuck: Bob Gough December 22, 2021
  • What the Schuck? Zach Richardson KHQA October 29, 2021
  • Muddy River Breakdown: 10-28 October 28, 2021

Footer

Coverage Map
Muddy River Sports

Muddy River News LLC
535 Maine, Suite 4A
Quincy, IL 62301

Have a Story or News Tips? Contact Us!

Phone: (217) 577-8044
Email: news@muddyrivernews.com

Copyright © 2022 · Muddy River News LLC • Privacy Policy