Odds are 67 million to 1 for what this Walla Walla golfer pulled off in single round

What’s it like to hit a hole-in-one?

I have no idea. Never had one.

My father-in-law has seven. I’ve seen my friend Matt hit two, and I was just as excited to see them as he was to make them.

The internet tells us that the odds of hitting a hole-in-one on any round of golf is 12,500 to 1.

And the odds of doing it twice in the same round are 67 million to 1.

Yet Walla Walla’s Denise Owen pulled it off June 6 at Walla Walla Country.

I stumbled upon Owen’s feat last week when I was trying to pare my emails down and found one from the Washington Golf Association from mid-June.

I scrolled down and found what Owen did, and I just had to talk to her.

Outside of the Kennewick American 12-year-olds winning the Cal Ripken National Invitational baseball tournament a few weeks ago in Branson, Mo., Owen’s feat might be the top local sports story of the summer.

Owen never does anything just half way.

When she finds something to do that interests her, she devotes a lot of time on it.

“I’m one of those people who kind of go all in on things,” Owen said.

That includes playing the game of golf.

Back in 2008, Owen and her then-husband lived in the Seattle area, where she rode horses and he golfed at the prestigious Sahalee Country Club.

The husband was going to take a job in the Middle East, and Owen decided she wouldn’t do that. They separated.

“Sahalee calls me to tell me I am the owner of a golf membership at their course,” Owen said. “So I gave up riding and took up golf. It’s the worst best thing to happen to me.”

That’s because she dived into the sport.

“Since then, I play four to five times a week,” she said. “I like to call myself an accidental golfer.”

But she did it right. At Sahalee, she took lessons from former LPGA great Sandra Palmer — winner of 19 LPGA events, including two major championships.

“She’s a super sweet lady,” Owen said. “I lucked out to get her.”

Those lessons gave Owen a strong base for the game.

Just a little over a year ago, Owen moved to Walla Walla and found herself golfing a lot at the Walla Walla Country Club.

Owen was playing her usual Saturday game with the ladies’ 18-hole group, and her playing partners were Kathy Mauer, Helene Chong and Jane Shaw.

Usually foursomes have side bets, and theirs that day was least putts for the round.

They came upon the 127-yard No. 8 hole, and Owen used her 5 Hybrid.

“(The ball) ran straight at the hole, it hit the rough and slowed it, going straight in,” said Owen on her first ace. “A group of guys on the 7th hole saw it. They came over in their carts and high-fived me.”

Mauer wanted the ball so she could put it in a case for her. Apparently, people who get holes-in-one do that sort of thing. I wouldn’t know.

“I finished No. 9 with it, a Titlist AVX, and she said ‘Give it to me,’” Owen said.

But she wasn’t done.

“Number 17 is a long par-3 (158 yards),” Owen said. “I used a driver because you have to hit it over a creek and then go up a big hill.”

Owen hit the driver well, and it rolled onto the green. She thought it ran off the backside.

“I could see it rolling. But you can’t see the hole. I started walking towards the hole,” Owen said.

Mauer felt immediately that the ball had gone into the hole.

“I had to argue with her that it went in. Helene didn’t think it did either,” Mauer said. “I said ‘Oh no, that went in the hole.’ So I hopped in the cart and drove up there.”

Sure enough, it was in the hole.

“Denise carries her clubs when she walks, and she fell down when I told her it was in,” Mauer said.

There is a tradition that when you get a hole-in-one, you’re supposed to buy everyone at the club a drink.

“I tried to buy everyone drinks,” Owen said. “But Walla Walla Country Club has hole-in-one insurance, and when it happens, everyone gets a drink.”

Owen’s foursome also chipped in some money to buy some lottery tickets. Alas, that’s where the luck ran out.

Owen’s score that day ended up being an 81, and her handicap dropped 4 index points overnight. She’s a 12-handicap at the country club.

Oh, she also won the least putts competition that day.

It’s pretty cool to witness aces.

“I couldn’t stop smiling that day,” Mauer said. “Denise works hard at her game. We played last Thursday, and I thought she was going to get another one!”

But it’s even better to get the hole-in-one. Or two.

“It was super fun with all of my friends,” said Owen, who has acquired a new nickname at the country club. “Now everyone calls me Double Ace.”

This story was originally published September 4, 2020 at 5:00 AM.