96-year old Stewart Roche has three hole-in-ones since he turned 91.
96-year old Stewart Roche has three hole-in-ones since he turned 91.
96-year old Stewart Roche has three hole-in-ones since he turned 91.
SHELBY, Mich. (WZZM) - The hole-in-one -- along with the double-eagle (albatross), it's one of the rarities in the game of golf. The chance of an average golfer making a hole in one is 12,500-to-1.
One West Michigan man has defied age, as well as the odds, to record nine hole-in-ones during his lifetime. Believe it or not, that's not the most impressive part of his story.
The game of golf goes tee to green. The ultimate goal is to put the ball in the hole with the least amount of strokes possible.
"There's so much luck involved," said Stewart Roche, an avid golfer from Hart, Michigan.
According to the National Golf Foundation, nearly half of the golfers in the United States who play at least 25 rounds per year, are over 50 years of age. More than half of that group of golfers is over 65.
"For my age, to still be playing golf is a minor miracle", said Roche, who was born in Grand Rapids and graduated from Catholic Central High School in 1933.
Stewart Roche is 96 years old.
"It's quite a thrill at my age to be somewhat competitive," added Roche. "I run on batteries; I'm on my third pacemaker."
This near centenarian still tries to squeeze in 27 holes a week.
"I'm kind of a streaky golfer," said Roche, who is modest about his abilities on the links.
You see, Stewart Roche has recorded nine hole-in-ones during his lifetime.
"Your reaction to hole-in-ones is that you can't believe it [when it happens]", said Roche jokingly.
His most recent ace came on June 15th, 2012 on the par three, 12th hole at Oceana Golf Club.
"I chose a four-iron," said Roche, as he described his memorable shot. "The tee shot was into the wind, about 130 yards away."
Roche has now aced the 12th hole at Oceana Golf Club a course-record three times.
Impressed yet?
If not, you're about to be, because three of Stewart Roche's nine career hole-in-ones have come since he turned 91.
"After 90 years old, playing golf is one thing; being alive is another, but being able to make three hole-in-ones is incredible," said Marc Inglis, golf pro at Oceana Golf Club in Hart.
Since turning 91 on February 17, 2007, Stewart Roche has recorded two aces at Oceana Golf Club and one at Golden Sands Golf Course in Silver Lake.
"He got a hole-in-one on hole three," said Alicia Kolenda, golf pro at Golden Sands Golf Course, "It's a par three, and he came in very happy [after it happened]."
Three hole-in-ones in his 90s - does that make Mr. Roche some sort of a record holder?
"It's unheard of, as far as I know," said Marc Ingles.
"I'd really like to know," said Mr. Roche.
We at WZZM wanted to know, too.
Our first stop was contacting the Guinness Book of World Records where, as you might imagine, there are many hole-in-one world records.
We informed Guinness of Mr. Roche's accomplishment, and Sara Wilcox, public relations executive at Guinness, quickly responded saying, "This is very impressive. Congratulations to Mr. Roche! Unfortunately this isn't a record category that we monitor as we don't qualify these types of records by age."
After checking with Guinness, we turned our attention to Golf Digest Magazine, one of the world's premiere golf publications.
"He's done something that, according to our records, we can't find has been done before," said Cliff Schrock, Editor of Golf Digest's Resource Center. "We've been keeping records [at Golf Digest] since the 1950s. We've become known as the hole-in-one gurus. As unique as these things can be, they've often been done before, but in Mr. Roche's case, you can't really say that, because we don't have an incidence of a man after age 91 making three aces."
So, we hit the jackpot! Stewart Roche's three aces, after age 91, will go into Golf Digest's record books.
"Very surprised and glad it happened," said Roche about his record. "I'm a very fortunate person."
Cliff Schrock at Golf Digest says he will be reaching out to Stewart Roche very soon. The publication plans to send him an official letter, congratulating him on his accomplishment, and will add his record to their stories archives in the near future.