Beginners luck, veteran perseverance lead to holes in one

BY MELANIE SCHULER and

MARC LALONDE

Two local golfers — worlds apart in experience — hit golf’s version of pay dirt in the last month.

Stéphanie Perreault succeeded in completing a hole in one at Golf Dorval June 20. It was on the 100-yard par-3 ninth hole that Perreault putted the hole in one.

“I was so surprised,” said 32-year-old Pointe Claire resident, who has only taken several golf lessons and was on just her second golf outing of the summer.

“I would definitely call this situation beginners luck,” she said.

Perreault was taking a golf clinic at Golf Dorval when the hole in one occurred.

It wasn’t the only ace of the last month at area clubs.

At Summerlea Golf and Country Club in Vaudreuil-Dorion, 25-year veteran golfer Janet Manning hit the first ace of her career during an intra-sectional qualifying round Saturday afternoon. A Pointe Claire resident, Manning hit a 7-iron 128 yards to the pin on the 17th hole of Summerlea’s Dorion course.

“Twenty-five years. I can’t believe it took me 25 years to get a hole in one, but I did and it’s great,” she said.

Manning, also a certified course evaluator for the United States Golf Association (USGA), said she was eager to get back to the club and try for a second ace.

“I’ll try and get another one, but as I have learned over 25 years, you have to sort of take what the course gives you on any given day. I grovel quite well. I plead with the ball. I figure I’ve got another 25 years before I get the second. Or 25 days. I’d never seen a hole in one before this one, either. That’s why it was so much fun.”