By Staff
Scot Beard
Standing at the tee on the par-3 eighth hole at Deer Run Obert W. Roberts looked into his bag to figure out which club would give him the best chance to clear the water cutting across the fairway and reach the green.
His choice of a 7-iron proved correct as he watched the ball not only find the green, but drop into the hole to give him the ninth hole-in-one of his golfing career.
"I'm blessed or lucky I guess," said the 87-year-old golfer. "I play a lot of golf."
He picked up the game when he was 54 after some friends talked him into playing. Roberts said he got hooked and has been playing ever since.
He became the oldest player to hit a hole-in-one at Deer Run in 2004 when he was 83. Two years later he added another hole-in-one at the same course.
Roberts has had quite a bit of luck recording aces at Deer Run – six of his holes-in-one have occurred there.
His neighbor, Don Suddth, witnessed the latest one.
The United States Golf Register estimates the odds of hitting a hole-in-one on any given swing is one in 33,000.
Many golfers play their entire lives without recording an ace, but Roberts seems to have defied the odds.
Even though his nine aces are impressive, he has a long way to go to break the USGR record of 59 holes-in-one held by Norman Manley who had four aces in 1979.
He will also have to wait a few more years to break the organization's record for oldest golfer to hit a hole-in-one. That honor goes to Harold Stilson of Boca Raton, Fla. who hit an ace at the age of 101.