The most difficult par-3 in Southern Arizona is almost certainly the 200-yard No. 8 hole at old El Rio Golf Course. It remains the same hole Ben Hogan and Sam Snead played in the Tucson Open 70 years ago.
Two huge bunkers guard the front of a green. You’ve either got to parachute your tee shot 200 yards into the narrow gap between the bunkers, or hope to roll a lower shot between the small opening.
On Monday, 85-year-old Rollie Cook, a longtime teacher and golf coach at Palo Verde High School, did just that. His tee shot rolled into the cup while playing in the Pima Masters group.
“I choked up on my driver,” said Cook. “But I didn’t see it roll into the hole. That’s a long way from the tee.”
Once a single-digit handicap player and a former champion of the Tucson Citizen Senior Golf championship, Cook earlier had a hole-in-one at the old Tucson Conquistadores fundraising event at Randolph North, getting 12 shots for $10. With it, he earned a year’s use of an automobile.
Last week, he didn’t win a car, but neither did he have to buy drinks for anyone at the bar, a traditional hole-in-one celebration.
“I bought hole-in-one insurance through our league,” he said. “I didn’t brag or gloat or anything. When you’re my age, your ego goes out the door.”
