Nine-year-old makes hole-in-one

COLUMBIA — When 9-year-old Joseph Dye arrived at the seventh hole Saturday at Perche Creek Golf Club, he had never made a birdie. After sinking a hole-in-one, he still didn’t have one.

Joseph, who will start fourth grade at Midway Heights Elementary in the fall, just started playing golf last summer. He has had no formal golf lessons and has only played about a dozen rounds of golf.

Joseph was playing on the 18-hole par-3 course with his father, John Dye, and his father’s fiancé, Beth Steele. The pin was about 90 yards away on the par-3 seventh. Joseph used his 5-iron and the ball hit just in front of the green before it bounced on and rolled into the hole.

Joseph never expected to make the shot, but after seeing the flight of the ball, he knew the result would be good.

“I thought maybe if it kept rolling maybe it would go in,” Joseph said. “But I sort of thought it stopped, so I looked away.”

Joseph never saw the ball go in. He found out from his father and Steele.

“We were like, ‘Joseph, you just hit a hole-in-one,’” John Dye said. “And he was like, ‘Nuh-uh,’ so we told him to look in the hole.”

Sure enough, Joseph found his ball at the bottom of the cup. As he headed for the eighth hole, he took some of the magic from the seventh with him.

“We were joking on the next hole, telling him he couldn’t do it again,” John Dye said. “But he tried.”

Using his 5-iron again, Joseph knocked his tee shot within four feet of the pin. He made the putt, recording his first ever birdie.

Joseph finished with a 108. But the day will be remembered for the two great shots on the seventh and eighth.

“It was crazy,” John Dye said. “We couldn’t believe it. He hadn’t even had many pars on that course.”