HELENA — Football has the Hail Mary. Basketball has the full-court heave. Bowling has the 7-10 split.
Golf has the hole-in-one.
Carroll’s Taylor “TJ” Fierling made the first ace in program history Tuesday during the final round of the Warrior Spring Classic, hosted by Lewis-Clark State at Red Wolf Golf Club in Clarkston, Wash. While no video exists of the shot, Fierling still has the history-making ball and scorecard to prove it.
Watch the video to hear Fierling recount his hole-in-one:
“The pin was tucked behind a bunker, so I couldn’t really see it,” Fierling told MTN Sports Thursday at Bill Roberts Golf Course in Helena. “I hit the shot, going right at it. Didn’t see it bounce or anything. Had a buddy behind the green. He had like three different reactions. After I knew it went in from my parents' reaction and his reaction, I threw my club up in the air like a baseball toss, baseball-bat flip.”
So luckily for Fierling, he wasn’t alone when he sank the tee shot on that 153-yard par 3. Fierling’s teammate, Hudson Reinke, can vouch that the unlikely really did come true.
“It was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever seen,” Reinke said. “I just finished the hole. I’m standing there on the side of the green, watching TJ hit. And I’m like ‘Oh, it’s a pretty good shot.’ And I’m watching it trace the hole. It lands just like an inch in front of it, hops right back over it, and spins right back and goes in. And I just go ballistic. It was so crazy.”
While it’s hard to pin down the exact odds of sinking a hole-in-one, the feat almost certainly involves a good deal of skill — and a good deal of luck.
When MTN Sports asked Fierling if he could recreate the shot with 100 balls, he said likely not.
“I think I looked something up on the internet — depending on your handicap, it’s like 12,000-to-1,” Fierling said. “So, I think I would get it close, but I don’t think I would make it.”
