The par-4 17th hole at Pinnacle Country Club in Milan, Illinois, measures 345 yards.
It took Aldrich Potgieter just one shot to find the hole.
The burly 18-year-old from South Africa, who turned pro after playing the U.S. Open as the reigning British Amateur champion, was among the several players competing in the Monday qualifier for the John Deere Classic. He shot 6-under 66 to miss punching his ticket to TPC Deere Run by a single shot, but he still left with the hefty memory of making a hole-in-one … on a par-4.
Potgieter was 3 under having carded four birdies in seven holes when he stepped on tee box at the dogleg-right 17th, his eighth hole of the day. He then grabbed driver and launched a missile over the corner, onto the green and into the hole – not that Potgieter saw it.
“That was really exciting, and it was kind of a weird moment,” Potgieter told PGATour.com afterward. “I didn’t see it go in, so I didn’t know. Kind of a blind tee shot, but … when I saw my caddie run out to the fairway, and was pumping up his arms and going wild, I thought it was probably like a foot or two. And he said, no, it was in the hole. So, it wasn’t like one you see on a par 3 and you go wild with the crowd. It was kind of a quiet moment to yourself where you’re like, ‘I still can’t believe that happened.’”
Potgieter followed the rare ace with back-to-back pars on par-5s, Nos. 18 and 1. He failed to feast on the remaining holes, playing those in even par to miss out on playing his second PGA Tour event as a pro. He missed the cut at last week’s Rocket Mortgage Classic, which he played on a sponsor exemption. Prior to that, he tied for 35th in his pro debut on the Korn Ferry Tour, the week after he finished solo 64th at Los Angeles Country Club.
Reid Martin, Yuto Kasuragawa, Kaito Onishi and amateur Anders Larson were the four qualifiers.
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