The Ace Scorecard Found

The Ace Scorecard

Byron Center, MI--In yet another startling discovery, the James E. Vos Memorial Invitational executive committee today announced it has found and preserved the scorecard from the only recorded hole-in-one in the tournament's 27 year history.

The highly prized card was thought to be forever lost with the passing of Jim Vos, Sr. who recorded the ace. Hopes grew, however, when a box of tournament archives was found last week in a dusty corner of executive committee member, Mark Rice's, basement.

Rice says, "The card was obviously one of the first things we looked for when the archive files were discovered. It took us a few days because we had the year the ace was recorded wrong. We thought it had been recorded in 1994 and that's where we started looking. The ace was actually recorded in 1997 and found among those files."

True to participant's memory the ace was recorded on the 16th hole of the Garland Reflections course, the afternoon of Thursday, June 12, 1997. Joining Sr. Vos for the historical moment were Dan Vander Wal, Rodger Rice, and Sr.'s son, Jack. The participants were engaged in a 2-man stroke-play event with Dan and Rodg taking on Team Vos. The match was tightly contested at first, staying even through six holes until a net birdie by Jack matched against a double-bogey by Vander Wal/Rice put Team Vos up by three strokes.

Team Vander Wal/Rice tried to inch back into the match, gaining a stroke a the par 4 13th, but everything broke loose on 16. Down by just two strokes with three holes to play, Team Vander Wal/Rice were far from out of it, until lightening struck.

To suggest no one would have expected what happened next is not a stretch. As the scorecard reads, Sr. Vos had just gone bogey-triple-quad-triple the last four holes. This new-found fact makes the ace all the more dramatic. Who records an ace after a stretch like that? Ah, but the Sr. Magic has never been held captive by the past. Always upbeat, always confident the next one will go in, he did just that. Calmly, as only he can waggle, a quick practice stroke, and off it soared.

Reflections #16

Son Jack's account takes over from here:

"Came in a little left to right, rolled 8-10 feet, we all watched, net 0 on card."

Amen. And what a net zero it was.

The tournament executive committee has placed the card in a fully preserved, dirt-free, vacuum-sealed container while they discuss its future plans. A first priority will be to have the remaining three participants sign the card for the history books.