Aces Wild at Portland Golf Course
By GLENN JORDAN, Portland Press Herald Writer
Copyright 2000 Blethen Maine Newspapers Inc.

The odds of drawing a pair of aces in a poker hand are roughly 30 to 1.

The odds of hitting a pair of aces on consecutive swings by playing partners
on the toughest par-3 at Riverside Municipal Golf Course are, well . . .

"That's got to be as rare as it gets," said Pete Brogan, who is still digesting his role in Sunday's improbable double.

Brogan, a 40-year-old postal clerk from Portland who has been playing golf
for nearly three decades, hit the first hole-in-one of his career Sunday afternoon. Tim Landry, a 21-year-old from Falmouth who works as an apprentice at Brunswick Golf Club, followed with another hole-in-one, also his first.

"I've seen a lot of things," said Chris Gratto, one of two other witnesses to the event. "But I haven't seen anything like that."

Hole in One International, an outfit in Reno, Nev., that provides insurance for golf outings that include hole-in-one prizes, puts the odds of a hole-in-one at 10,000-to-1.

To make two in a row would make the odds 100 million-to-1.

"The more I think about it," Brogan said, "the more unbelievable it is."

The events that drew Brogan and Landry together -- they met only minutes
before their aces -- seem almost as unlikely.

Brogan has been a member at Riverside for 27 years. He needed two rounds in
order to qualify for the City Championship, but as of Sunday morning he only
had one.

So despite an ominous weather forecast and gathering clouds, he teed off at
6:40 a.m. He managed to play three holes before getting soaked by rain. He
returned home.

His playing partner and fellow postal clerk, Gratto, 47, had taken one look outside, then closed the drapes and returned to bed.

When the weather cleared, however, Brogan called Gratto because he needed a
witness for his qualifying round. They met at Riverside and played the back nine first.

A 9-handicapper, Brogan made the turn at 43. Not an awful score, but not up
to his standards.

Two days before, he had found a nearly new golf ball in the rough, a Top Flite 2000 with an imprint of St. Peter's Catholic Church, sponsor of a recent charity tournament. He was using it on Sunday.

"I figured I've got to have some help because I'm not going to make the championship flight," Brogan said of his qualifying attempt.

Help finally arrived on the front nine. Brogan drained a 100-foot birdie putt on the second hole. When he and Gratto reached the sixth tee, two of the three golfers in front were stuck in a gully that lies between tee and green.

Five minutes passed before the threesome putted out, which gave Landry and
Mike Yankowski of Portland, who had hooked up earlier in the day, time to
catch up with Brogan and Gratto.

"I was kind of irritated at being held up," Brogan said, "and my initial reaction was I'd rather not play with anybody I didn't know while I was trying to qualify."

But Brogan knew Yankowski from Portland High School, where they had played
baseball together. Introductions were made, then Gratto hit from the blue tees, listed at 197 yards but closer to 190, according to a Riverside assistant.

"You have to be accurate with your tee shot or you're in trouble," said Gratto, who drove left and eventually made a bogey.

With an exposed tee and elevated green, the sixth at Riverside always has a
breeze. Club selection varies from an 8-iron to a 3-wood. On Sunday the wind
blew hard but helpful, 15 to 20 mph, guessed Brogan, who chose a 6-iron and
faded it into the green.

"Just the way it rolled, I said, 'Pete, I think that went in the jar,' " Gratto said.

Because the threesome ahead had no reaction, Brogan discounted the notion
and started thinking about a birdie.

Up stepped Landry, a former soccer player at Falmouth High who has been
playing golf only four years. If not for the earlier rainstorm, he likely would have remained at work in Brunswick.

He chose a 5-iron and hit it thin, but straight. The ball struck the flagstick on one hop and dropped straight down.

Yankowski then pushed his shot to the right, and the newly formed foursome
walked expectantly down the gully and up to the green.

Empty.

They looked in the cup.

Full.

"We were all excited," Gratto said. "There was a lot of high-fiving going on. It was fun to watch, I'll tell you that."

Landry, who plays to a 7-handicap, double-bogeyed the final three holes. "My
nerves were pretty shot," he said.

Brogan, still concerned with qualifying, went bogey-par-bogey to finish at
79, good enough to land him in the championship flight.

Both Brogan and Landry continued to use the same balls, which they have
since put away as keepsakes.

"That was amazing," Gratto said. "I'm sure there are a lot of easy par-3s
where that might happen, but not that hole. That's one of the tougher holes
in Maine.''