I have played a thousand rounds of golf with my friend John Bator. I witnessed his first, third and tenth holes-in-one over the past 40+ years. I had the distinction of being the only one out of our group of players who had yet to score an ace and quite frankly I had given up ever getting one, especially since I no longer play 150 rounds a year. I live in California and journey back to Massachusetts twice a year to play golf with my friends. Our first round was played at Franconia Golf Course in Springfield, MA and this trip was about to become memorable as I stepped up to the 14th hole, a relatively short par 3 (132 yards) - 8 iron in my hands. This is normally a 9 iron shot for me, however, we had a slight breeze in our face, so I dropped down one club. As soon as I hit it, I jokingly said, “that’s in!” I took my eyes off the green as I walked back to our golf cart. My buddy John had bent over and was teeing up his ball. Neither of us saw the ball go in. When we got to the green I noticed my ball mark about 7 feet away. I knew I didn’t hit it long and I observed the lack of a ball on the green. I looked at John and said, “John - is it possible?” I slowly walked toward the hole - excited, yet nervous that I’d be disappointed. I peeked into the hole - and there was my Titleist ProV1x with the custom number 53 on it sitting in the bottom of the hole. The entire experience has been surreal, primarily because we didn’t see it go in. I’m looking forward to getting number 2.