Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2021 - 23

nesses when hitting one of her fi ve-career
holes-in-one, incredulous though those witnesses
may be.
" I was in complete shock, " Huettl said
of her most recent hole-in-one on June 7,
2021, on Royal's 12th hole. " I dropped my
club, dropped my jaw and just stared at my
buddy [who said] 'Are you kidding me? How
is this even possible?' "
You see, Huettl had just made an ace three
days prior at Troy Burne GC's 11th hole.
And another 33 days before that on May 2
on Royal's No. 7-and one more last season
( June 22, 2020, at StoneRidge's No. 14). Her
fi rst was on September 18, 2013, at Eagle
Valley No. 5. The odds for a single ace are
12,500 to one. The odds of them
occurring with this frequency
are off the charts.
(Although,
Minnetrista golfer Brenda
Williams holds the Guinness
World Record for aces in a year
with four in 11 months and 3
days. Lindsey falls just shy at 11
months and 15 days). The question
remains: How, indeed?
" It's all luck, " Huettl says
without a hint of false modesty.
" It really is. Yes, you have to be
able to put the ball in the vicinity
of the hole, but for it to actually
go in, you don't know what
line to hit and or break to play.
You have a general idea, but
that's all luck. "
Many athletes say, " the harder
" The odds
for a single
ace are
12,500
to one.
The odds
of them
occurring
with this
frequency
are off the
charts. "
I work, the luckier I get. " Huettl,
a former college soccer player at MSUMankato,
defi nitely puts in time on the
course. She's a self-proclaimed golf nut,
playing 5-6 rounds a week and posting more
than 200 rounds in 2020. But, actually, it's
not work for Huettl.
" I do not practice, " she says. " I don't go to
the putting green; I don't go to the chipping
green; I don't go to the driving range and
just hit balls. I play. Playing is my practice. "
Okay, so maybe she is lucky. But Huettl
recently put a golf simulator in her house
and credits a gift from a friend for helping
improve her short game.
" I am decent around the greens, " says
Huettl, who also jarred an eagle on a par 4
this past summer at Royal. " I credit a birthday
gift of the Tiger Woods 14 game on
PlayStation 3. I played it all winter. It showed
me all these different chip shots [and I
wanted] to try them on the course. "
Huettl's a student of the game-but it
wasn't always that way. She grew up with
golf-playing parents, who coerced Lindsey
to the course so they could play.
" My parents started me playing at age 5 or
6, but I had no interest in it, " Lindsey says. " I
was only going willingly with a ride in a golf
cart and M&Ms at the turn. "
She played soccer and basketball in high
school-only joining the Mankato East golf
team at the insistence of her mom. But her
heart wasn't in it, even though she made varsity
her sophomore year.
" If my high school coach
could see me now, he wouldn't
believe how much I love golf, "
Lindsey says.
Lindsey got hooked after
meeting up with a former college
soccer teammate for some
competitive rounds and then
realizing how golf had become
a
continuing
connection to
her parents. There was competition
with them, as well:
Lindsey happily reports that
her fi ve aces " fi nally tie " her
parents' fi ve combined (three
for dad and two for mom).
Luck, genetics or solid golf-
perhaps all are at play-but
Lindsey's story is even more
amazing. She is 36 and single,
but her friend Marie, hoping to help change
that, gave her golf balls inscribed with the
following note: " Married, old, female? Drop
this ball at once! 30-40 male, single? Text:
[Lindsey's phone number]. " Those golf balls
are lost (doing their job), but balls from a
later iteration are not.
" Last year, my friend Tom continued the
tradition of birthday golf balls with ones
that say: " If found, I putt out.' "
Unfortunately, three of those golf balls are
mounted on a wall of Lindsey's home in a
display of her hole-in-one golf balls.
Lindsey recently discovered another sleeve
of those birthday golf balls, so the husband
hunting (or her quest for more aces), continues.
Either way, this golf tale just gets taller.
One to
Ann Watche Colehour Mullen, MGA
meetings and events manager,
has long been known as " AC. "
But that moniker is changing.
This past summer Anne and her
husband Don joined LeSueur
Country Club, and soon people
were calling her " Ace. "
Anne, a golfer for 23 years,
made her fi rst-ever hole-in-one
on July 2 at LeSueur's short No.
10. And in her next round, 21
days later, she made another on
the same hole.
" I was in disbelief! " AC says of
the fi rst ace. " It was awesome,
as I was able to watch the ball
go in. The hole is in front of the
clubhouse, so people came running
out to congratulate me! "
On No. 10 tee three weeks later,
her group members chided her
about hitting another one.
" I didn't feel ay pressure, " she
says. " I grabbed my 9-iron and
swung away. The ball was going
right for the hole and bounced
once and went in. I threw my
hands up, and the guys couldn't
believe I just got another holein-one! "
Anne
says that years of experience,
frequency of play and
your handicap don't matter.
" July was my month. " Yet, she
continues to look for more.
" As the quote says, 'good things
come in threes,' " AC(e) says.
mngolf.org
Fall 2021 MINNESOTAGOLFER
23
http://www.mngolf.org
Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2021

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Minnesota Golfer - Fall 2021
