When Bonnie Jessen reached down to pick her golf ball out of the cup on Nico Wynd Golf Club’s sixth hole – just minutes after her first-ever hole-in-one – she thought of her sister.
Jessen’s sister, Jan – who was a frequent golfing partner – passed away eight years ago and Monday, the day of Jessen’s feat, would have been her 71st birthday.
“It was wonderful. My sister and I used to golf together all the time… she was an avid golfer and I’m sure she was watching,” Jessen said.
Jessen, an 80-year-old South Surrey resident who said she’s played Nico Wynd fairly regularly for the last five years, golfed Monday’s round with two other friends, and none of three of them saw Jessen’s ball actually drop into the cup on the 143-yard par-3 hole.
“I saw it hit the green and roll up, and kind of curl in towards the hole,” she explained, adding that she hit a three-wood off the tee. “The girls didn’t see it go in and I couldn’t see it either, but I did have a feeling that it might’ve.
“When we walked up, we saw the other two balls but we didn’t see mine. Then I found mine in the hole.”
Jessen – who described the rest of her round as “up and down” – said she was in disbelief once she realized what had happened.
“It was really exciting. It was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I got a hole-in-one?’ It’s just not something you expect because for most of us, we feel lucky if we just hit the green,” she laughed.
“It was my first time I’ve ever had a hole-in-one anywhere in my 40 years of golfing. I guess the lesson is never give up.”
Jessen said she and her friends golf Nico Wynd twice a week – “We have a group on Monday and a group on Friday,” she said – and they play nine holes.
“We’re not 18-holers, we’re seniors. But we have a lot of fun,” she said.
After the round, Jessen received a hole-in-one trophy from the course.
“It wasn’t a stellar day overall, for my score, but the hole-in-one made up for it.”
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