Charlie Osborne thought he lost his ball.
Then he thought his friends were goofing with him after he hit a tee shot on hole No. 2 at the Old Works Golf Course during a July 30 round in Anaconda.
As it turns out, though, Osborne defied the odds and the golf gods with a hole-in-one on a par 4. Some estimate the odds of such a feat are 6 million to 1. Or even greater.
“It only takes a guy 68 years,” Osborne said. “I’ve never had my name in the sports page. I told my wife, ‘I’m going to get my name in the sports page for one time in my life.’”
Osborn used his driver for the ace on the hole that was playing 263 yards. He was playing with Tom Pomroy, Sherwood Wolstein and Greg DeWitt, and none in the foursome saw the ball go in the hole.
“We didn’t see it, so it was pretty uneventful,” Osborne said. “We thought we lost my ball.”
Osborne said Pomroy putted out before Wolstein finished on the hole. When he picked his ball out, he said, “There’s two balls in here.”
“I asked Pomroy why he didn’t say anything,” Osborne said, “and he said, ‘It isn’t mine.’”
The shot is believed to be the first hole-in-one at the Old Works since the course opened for play in 1997.
The ace was the second for Osborne, who said he has been playing golf off and on since he was in grade school. He hit an ace on a par 3 hole in California a couple of years ago.
Of course, that seems like nothing compared to his latest ace.
“It’s the rarest shot in golf,” Osborne said of the ace on the par 4. “It’s a once-in-a-lifetime shot, if anything.”
The ButteCast with Bill Foley 