It has been a historic week in pro golf.
On Thursday morning, Jake Knapp became just the 15th player ever to break 60 in a round, shooting 59 on the opening day at the Cognizant Clasic. And on Friday morning, halfway across the world, Dale Whitnell became the fourth player in golf history to make two aces … in a single round.
Yes, Dale Whitnell waited 153 professional starts before getting the first ace of his pro golf career. But he waited fewer than 12 holes before his second.
On Friday morning at the South African Open Championship, Whitnell made an ace on the par-3 2nd, a 178-yarder down a hill — ending a stretch of some 153 professional starts, and 460 pro rounds played, without a hole-in-one in competition. The monkey was off his back, and it was time to celebrate.
“It was mad,” he said later in an on-course interview with the DP World Tour. “I haven’t [had] one for a few years now. The first one was on the 2nd hole, a par-3, 178 7-iron, straight down to the flag, and in.”
But then, as Whitnell turned to the back nine, he faced a tee shot on another, even-more-gettable par-3, the 12th hole, a 128-yarder. With a 58-degree wedge in hand, he made what he termed another “strong swing” on the ball, and watched as it soared just beyond the hole, popping up in the air and zipping back into the hole on the bounce.
“I’m still playing so the adrenaline’s still going,” he said. “Enjoying it. Five under through three is a pretty nice start. Eight under so far today is pretty solid today.”
Whitnell shot a 9-under 63 on Friday, vaulting himself from near the cutline to comfortably inside the top 10. He’ll have two long days ahead of him in South Africa to make a move up the leaderboard, but even if this weekend ends in a victory, there’s little doubting that the story of this week will forever start with Friday’s round, and the pair of aces it delivered.
