Players Championship: Two golfers score hole-in-ones

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Well, the field at the Players Championship probably had an excellent Friday night after two players hit the unlikely performance within hours of each other.
In the second round of the PGA Tour event, Denny McCarthy was the first player to hit a hole-in-one at TPC Sawgrass this year, putting his tee shot at the 165-yard third with an 8-iron to move up to shoot in the rankings. .

The Ace was only the fifth on the hole in tournament history and the first of McCarthy’s PGA Tour career.

McCarthy plays his shot from the sixth tee during the second round of The Players Championship.

And then, just hours later, Brendan Todd also rolled in his first hole-in-one of his PGA Tour career.

The American completed the feat on the par-3 eighth with a 213-yard effort with his 5-wood. It was the first hole-in-one on the eighth since Michael Thompson’s ace on the opening round of the 2013 game.

And after plucking his ball out of the hole, Todd seemed to recognize the blow to his bank account now that he had to buy drinks for all of his competitors, saying: “Can get expensive.”

For McCarthy, who had two hole-in-ones but none that competed, the ace was the culmination of an outstanding round that put him into battle at the PGA Tour flagship event.

“It felt good to hit a really great shot, exactly what I was trying to do, and it just disappeared,” said the 28-year-old afterwards. “I was pretty surprised. I think I let it go out, like a ‘Woo!’ I don’t know exactly what I released, but I looked around and everyone told me it went in.

“I just had a really good number on that pin today. It was a perfect 8 iron for me, and I just stepped forward and executed the shot.

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Todd plays his shot from the 18th tee.

He came in this week after missing six of his last eight cuts, but his second round of 69 and a total of 6 under has him among the leaders.

Lee Westwood hit a bogey-free 6-under 66 and came halfway through with a score of 9 under on Friday, ahead of fellow countryman Matt Fitzpatrick.

While the odds of professional golfers hitting a hole-in-one are significantly higher than the average player, they can still go their entire career without a hole-in-one.

The odds of a tour player hitting a hole-in-one are 3,000 to 1, while for average players they are 12,000 to 1, according to the National Hole-in-One Registry.

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