On Saturday October 29th 2022, in Orangetown NY at Blue Hill Golf Course, on a beautiful fall day, lightning struck. Actually, a lightning strike is much more common than what occurred. On the 3rd hole of the Woodlands course, a blind shot up a severe uphill Par-3, measuring 104 yards from the white tees, Montvale, NJ resident and lefty golfer Joe Hliboki, who recently turned 60 stepped up to the tee with his pitching wedge, to follow his longtime softball buddy Bob Jones’ excellent shot, he hit his own high and straight shot that landed on the front of the green and looked as good as Bob’s shot. Arthur Nalbandian, a childhood friend of Joe’s hit next, another fine shot that had them joking about seeing 3 balls in the cup and putting a lot of pressure on Matt who was batting cleanup and followed through with a good shot that was a bit long but on the green, a shot that any of the four would have been happy with on another day.

With three such good shots, if ever there was a chance that one of them went in, this was the day. Bob and Matt were in a cart ahead of Art and Joe who were walking up the hill, Matt was first to say, “I only see 3 balls on the green!” (Results – Ace-Birdie-Par-Par) He walked to the hole and asked, who hit a ProV?

It was at that moment; a very rare golfing feat was achieved. Yes, Joe got an ace, and he was happy but what he realized as he walked to the next tee was that in his excitement, he had completely forgotten what he had really achieved.

See, this was his second hole in one, his first hole in one was achieved on Thanksgiving Day in 1991, playing with his brother Jimmy and a rando who joined them, and he was playing righty. The first ace was on a very similar blind, uphill Par-3 110 Yard hole Joe used to sleighride on as a child at Old Tappan Golf Course in his hometown, which is on Lake Tappan, the same lake that borders Blue Hill Golf Course.

Joe, a natural lefty and a self-admitted mediocre 15 handicapper picked up the game borrowing his roommate’s righty clubs in college at Fairfield University where he played Lacrosse in the 80’s and continued to play righty into the mid 90’s when his game deteriorated. One day out of frustration, playing after work with a lefty friend, he borrowed his 5 iron and hit one of his better shots of the day. The next season he bought lefty clubs and made the transition, with all clubs except the putter.

Research has yielded less than 10 people who are documented in the US to achieve ambidextrous aces, and the USGA historians are looking into it.

Joe had achieved his bucket-list goal, he may never break 80 on a course without a windmill but he is a verified golfing oddity.