Hitting a long shot on Lucky 13

  • Published
  • By Kenji Thuloweit
  • 95th Air Base Wing Public Affairs
EDWARDS AIR FORCE BASE, Calif. --  If you've been planning on taking driving lessons from Muroc Lake golf pro Ricky Lanning you'd better hurry, because what Mike Strickler did last Friday afternoon may soon have Ricky's rates going way up.

During Friday's inaugural Civil Service golf tournament held at Muroc Lake, Strickler lined up at the par four, 13th hole tee box and proceeded to drain a 419 yard hole-in-one, known in golfing parlance as a double eagle or "albatross."

"Hole 13 is a big right dogleg, about 80 degrees off the center line, so many golfers try to shoot the angle formed between the elevated tee box and the mounded green," said Mr. Strickler, Public Affairs director at Edwards. "There's a rock field and heavy brush between points but a good drive will normally put you on the fairway about 80 yards from the green."

With typical high desert winds gusting from behind the tee box, Mr. Strickler lined up the shot with advice he'd gleaned from golf coach Ricky Lanning: slow backswing, quick pause, accelerate to the ball and swish through the shot.

"I hit it well and the wind helped move it down range toward the green, but this shot had better than average height and just kept climbing," Mr. Strickler said. "I saw it hit before the green but by then it was more than 300 yards away and we just lost sight of it."

Mr. Strickler and his PA-based foursome for the tournament, Steve Zapka, Robert Carlson and Cari Smith, moved down to the green and initially couldn't find the ball. After checking the brush and fairway, Mr. Strickler walked on the green and saw a ball sitting in the hole.

"I didn't want to touch it," he said. "Couldn't believe there was a ball in there."

Mr. Strickler called his team to the green and asked them to verify the ball in the hole; it was his #1 Callaway.

"Our first thought was 'hey, we're even now' as we had been three over par and now were back to even," he said. "My next thought was that we we're in the middle of a 90-person tournament and my bar tab was going to be huge."

Golf pro and manager Howard Kuroda announced the rare feat to the participants at the club house following the tournament and players came forward to congratulate Mr. Strickler and honor the long-held tradition of building his bar tab.

"I was happy to do it and Kim (Mr. Strickler's wife) was a good sport about it; as a golfer she was thrilled for me, and a little jealous too," Mr. Strickler said.

How rare is a double eagle? According to the Professional Golfers Association, the odds for a recreational golfer making a hole-in-one on a par three is about 13,000 to 1. The odds for a hole-in-one on a par four is nearly a million to one.

Mr. Strickler credits the rare shot to his golf coach Lanning.

"Ricky started working with me in February and we meet about two times a week after work, both at the golf range and on the course," he said. "At 24 Ricky is a much better golfer than I am at 46, and he's been playing since he was two." Mr. Lanning is a scratch golfer, meaning he easily shoots 72 (which is par for the course) and normally under.

"I pretty much hate him," Mr. Strickler joked. "But if you want to improve your game exponentially then Ricky's the guy to work with; he's improved my performance throughout the sport and helped me cut more than a dozen strokes off my game."

As to his first ace and the only recorded hole-in-one on Muroc Lake's lucky 13, Mr. Strickler credits some good luck and an exceptional young coach.

"I thank divine providence for the ball landing in the hole, but everything that helped me get it there I credit to Ricky's instruction," Mr. Strickler said.

For information on golf instruction at Edwards contact the Muroc Lake Golf Course staff at 661-277-PUTT (7888.)