Jack Stuckwisch walked up to hole No. 4 at Western Hills Golf Course in Salem, and it was the first par 3 he would play of the day.
He had about 150 yards to the green, but the only problem was he couldn’t actually see the hole because it was up over a hill.
Nevertheless, he knew he had to hit it straight to get to the hole.
Stuckwisch pulled out his six iron, took a couple of practice swings until he felt right, set his feet and then he uncorked a ball that glided straight over the hill.
“It felt good when I hit it,” he said. “I knew it was on the green.”
But when Stuckwisch approached the green, he couldn’t find his ball anywhere. He felt nervous, questioning how a shot that felt so good was nowhere to be found.
He remembers that after he hit that six iron, people over the hill started yelling. Stuckwisch just figured they were having a loud conversation. Turns out, there was purpose to that noise.
As Stuckwisch walked up to the flag, he looked down and saw his ball directly in the hole. He had just shot his first hole-in-one.
“I just couldn’t believe it,” Stuckwisch said. “And then I was so excited and I yelled to my friend that I got a hole-in-one, and he was pretty jealous.”
Stuckwisch is a seventh-grader at Lutheran Central School in Brownstown, but he’s able to play on the Brownstown Central Middle School golf team. He’s relatively new to playing golf, as well.
He has been playing baseball for most of his life, but he suffered a shoulder injury that made it difficult to throw a ball. He could still swing without pain, though, so he switched to golf, where all he had to do was swing and not throw. He started playing golf last July, and on Tuesday evening, he hit one of the more memorable shots of his life.
He continued an impressive lineage in his family of hole-in-one shots. His grandpa and his dad have both done it at some point in their lives, and now, Stuckwisch gets to say he has done it, too.
Tuesday also was the first match his mom, Jami, was able to attend, so she got to enjoy that special moment with her son.
She was at the tees when her son ripped his six iron, so they both didn’t know it was a hole-in-one until they walked up over the hill and onto the green.
“They were so surprised,” Stuckwisch said on his family’s reaction. “They were proud of me.”
Needless to say, Stuckwisch has fallen in love with the game, and it’s something he wants to continue to do when he gets to high school and maybe even beyond.
Golf is a mental game, and Stuckwisch tries to keep a cool head out on the course, but he admits his competitiveness can get the best of him.
No matter how frustrating the game can be, all it takes is one shot with a six iron on a par 3 on the fourth hole that can make it all worth it.
“It gets intense sometimes because I’m really competitive,” Stuckwisch said. “But I like it.”