Michael Vassil rolled golf’s version of snake eyes.
Two golf balls played, two swings, two 1s.
Vassil, playing alongside good friend and golf mate Barry Westington, notched two aces on No. 2 (par 3, 150 yards) at Country Club of Scranton (Falls) on April 15. He used a 7-iron to record his career 12th and 13th hole-in-one.
The odds of an individual recording two aces on the same hole when playing two balls is 1 in 156,000,000, according to US Hole In One, a leading provider of hole-one-insurance based in Newtown Square, Pa.
“I was kind of numb,” Vassil, 69, of Dalton, Pa., said. “It was such a nice day that we just finished out the round, yucking it up about what happened. Barry was saying, ‘Thank God they were both yours. If one was yours and one was mine, and we’re out in a twosome, nobody would believe it.’”
“I got to admit that if I didn’t witness it, I’m not sure I would have believed it,” Westington, 66, of South Abington Township, Pa., added. “To have one hole-in-one is pretty cool. To have two back-to-back is crazy.”
Friends since their days at Abington Heights High School, Vassil and Westington set out for a friendly nine-hole venture at Scranton. Temperatures in the mid-70s compelled the two to make it an 18-hole day.
“There were a couple of groups in front of us, so we said, ‘Why don’t we just play two balls?’” Westington said. “It’s cart path only. We’re walking out there anyway. I’ll play you in a better-ball. We’ll make a little competition of it.”
“I’m still kind of speechless over it.”
With the inward nine at Scranton closed, Vassil and Westington diverted to the Falls course for the round’s completion. Westington, holding tee honors, hit a pair of shots left of the hole location. Vassil executed the right stripes: approximately 25 and 10 feet, respectively.
The makeup of No. 2 clouds visual certainty from the tee. It offers a two-tiered green with a significant slope.
“When we got to No. 2, I actually commented, ‘Good. At least we got the hole-in-one pin.’ Generally, if you hit it right, it will feed into the low area, right where the pin was,” Vassil said. “From where we were, you couldn’t actually see the bottom of the pin.”
Vassil and Westington entered search mode upon arrival at the green. Only two golf balls on the green. Westington inspected and identified both as his. Vassil noticed the markings and confirmed.
So what port welcomed Vassil’s vessels? The bottom of the cup, Westington speculated.
“As soon as he said that, I got to the pin, looked down and both balls were sitting in there,” Vassil said.
“We both looked at each other like, ‘Did that just happen?’” Westington said. “The whole time [afterward], we were texting our buddies and responding to texts. We got done and we were sitting around having a drink. We still couldn’t believe it happened.”
Frankly, it almost didn’t happen. Tom Bowles and Chris Hoban planned to join Vassil and Westington that day for a match, but work commitments prevented their participation. All the more incentive for Vassil and Westington to implement a two-ball match.
“I saw Tom later and thanked him for not showing up,” Vassil said.
“We told them that we’ll give them a rematch, but we can’t promise that [back-to-back aces] will happen again,” Westington added.
For the record, Vassil and Westington did finish the round once the fervor calmed.
“I was winning on the front, but he definitely won on the back,” Westington said.
“The fact that it was just a knockaround round of golf, it deflates it a little bit. Just the uniqueness of it happening … I’m still kind of speechless over it,” Vassil said.
GAP
Celebrating Amateur Golf since 1897, GAP, also known as the Golf Association of Philadelphia, is the oldest regional or state golf association in the United States. It serves as the principal ruling body of amateur golf in its region. The organization’s 345 Member Clubs and 110,000 individual members are spread across Pennsylvania, Delaware, New Jersey and Maryland. The GAP’s mission is to promote, preserve and protect the game of golf.
