Terry Hexum first plopped down his usual Nike ball on the tee box of the fifth hole at Yankee Hill Country Club in Lincoln.
But a $50 flag prize was riding on the outcome, so he decided the shot called for something special.
Hexum pulled out one of a dozen balls he got for Christmas, with the initials of son Nick and daughter-in-law Nikki and the name of granddaughter Echo on it, and fired away with his 5-iron.
"That's the one I hit, and that's the one that went into the hole,'' Hexum said. "You really can't believe it.''
It was the second ace for the 70-year-old Omahan, and a lucrative one.
Not only did he earn the $50 for putting his ball closest to the 147-yard hole, but he also claimed an extra $100 for making the hole in one.
Hexum was on an outing with the Eastern Nebraska Seniors Golf Association. The group, which has 400 members, golfs each week at a different course in eastern Nebraska.
Flighted competition goes from May through August. Hexum said he's golfed this year at Oak Hills in Omaha, Iron Horse in Ashland, Bent Tree in Council Bluffs, Willow Lakes in Bellevue, Fremont Golf Club, Pines Country Club in Valley, the Elks Country Club in Columbus and Wilderness Ridge in Lincoln among others.
Prizes, carts, golf and lunch cost $50 to $60 each week. The group charges $20 a year to become a member.
"It's a real deal,'' Hexum said. "It's a really nice thing.''
The cup on that fifth hole was at the back of the green, and Hexum was unsure at first if his ball had gone in or rolled off the back.
"I waited until I got up to the cup and looked in,'' he said. "It's a really exciting experience to look down in the hole and that ball is in there. I let out a little bit of a whoop.''
He got lots of congratulations at the lunch afterward, making for a special day. He also shared the news with Nick, who was on tour as the front man with the band 311.
Hexum started golfing in 1956 and then took a break while his three kids were growing up. He got back into it in the mid-1980s and now golfs several times a week. He retired in 2008 as a faculty member at the University of Nebraska Medical Center.
He golfs every Saturday with friends Roger Reidelberger and John Krajicek, two of the witnesses to his hole in one. Bill Christensen was the third.
They also belong to a league at Dodge Riverside in Council Bluffs. He and his wife Deanna, who has three aces, also golf two or three times a week.
"I never play as well as I'd like to and that's what drives golfers,'' Hexum said. "As a retired person, we love to do it, and we have the time.
"We walk a lot of the time, not on the big courses, so the exercise is great.''
Contact the writer:
402-444-1034, marjie.ducey@owh.com
Copyright ©2012 Omaha World-Herald®. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, displayed or redistributed for any purpose without permission from the Omaha World-Herald.
