Beating the 26 million to 1 odds: Two Pocono area golfers hit back-to-back hole-in-ones
George Litz, left, and Ed Bragger each shot a hole-in-one
on No. 3 at the Pocono Farms CC
Photo courtesy of Pocono Record
Stroudsburg, Penn. (Oct. 6, 2015) -- Two area
golfers showed no handicap when they
rolled up to a par-3 tee and shot back-to-back
hole-in-ones recently.
George Litz, of Cresco, and Ed Bragger, of
Stanhope, N.J., pulled off the feat on the third
hole at the Pocono Farms Country Club, a course
designed by golfing legend and 1959 Masters
Champion Art Wall, who recorded a record 46
aces — or hole-in-ones.
“George hit the first one. I was still at the cart
and one of the players in our group said that they
thought George’s ball went into the hole while the
other said he thought it went behind the hole,”
said Bragger, 72.
“Me, my eyesight isn’t really good so I didn’t
know exactly where my ball went and when we
got up to the greens we started to look for my
ball,” he said.
That’s when the miracle at Pocono Farms was
discovered.
“We saw both balls in the hole,” Bragger said.
That the men were playing in the same foursome
made the feat all the more stunning, said Pocono
Farms golf professional Kyle Monahan.
“It’s unbelievable, incredible to have something
like that happen here at my club and the fact that
they were in the same group and immediately
after one of them got a hole-in-one the other
followed right away with a hole-in-one is really
amazing,” Monahan said.
The third hole has a 133 yard distance and is a
par 3 that runs downhill and overlooks a lake and
the clubhouse.
“The same day, the same grouping and back to
back, you simply cannot write that or make that
up,” Monahan said.
Golf Digest, which has been tracking aces for
more than six decades, described just how nearly
impossible the achievement is for both
professional and amateur golfers.
Golf Digest noted that there are 150,000 holes-in-
ones per year from an estimated 490 million
rounds of golf.
The hole-in-one odds for a pro golfer are 2,500 to
1 and 5,000 to 1 for those who play with a low
handicap.
For amateur golfers, the odds of an ace are
12,500 to 1. However, what Litz and Bragger
pulled off is likely never to happen again.
The odds for two amateur golfers in a foursome to
strike an ace in the same hole are 26 million to 1.
The odds are 1.3 million to 1 for two amateurs
making an ace in the same round.
“I wish I had a buck on those odds,” Bragger said.
What he and his friends did have was a pool that
they’d pour money into. They’d agreed that the
first person to hit an ace would receive the cash
in the pool, which amounted to $400.
“George is such a magnanimous guy and he was
first to get the hole-in-one because I shot after he
did,” said Bragger, a retired operations manager
at Verizon. “But, he split the pot with me and we
bought a round of drinks for everyone.”
Monahan said the club plans to mark the historic
occasion at a later date.
Bragger said he’s still speechless.
“I had just one ace back in 2009 so this was my
second,” he said. “I made my wife treat me like a
king for the rest of the week. It was so special
and especially for George and I to do this in the
twilight of our golfing is really great.”
By Stacy M. Brown
For the Pocono Record