St. Maxens’ rare feat helps Columbia to WMGA ‘A’ Team win Golf’s iconic thunderbolt is the hole-in-one. Players fortunate enough to get one have a story to tell for a lifetime. But much more rare is a double-eagle. Scoring a 2 on a par 5 hole can’t happen to anyone — it requires length and luck.
On Saturday, District resident Colin St. Maxens, 18, pulled off the feat and picked a good time to do it, helping Columbia to a victory over Washington Golf in the Washington Metropolitan Golf Association ‘A’ Team finals, 12-6.
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St. Maxens did it on the fourth hole at Washington, a 460-yard dogleg that bends right. Playing best ball, after teammate Marty West hit his drive down the middle, St. Maxens, gambled, hitting his tee shot over trees and to the fairway. With 151 yards left, St. Maxens fired a 9-iron over the flagstick. It landed five feet past the hole, but had backspin and tracked straight into the hole.
“We saw it trickle back and drop in. It was awesome,Ó said St. Maxens, a recent graduate of the Maret School. “I had never even had a hole-in-one.Ó
It was not the first double-eagle West had seen. He made one with a 3-wood at the Mid-Atlantic Two-Man Championship several years ago.
According to the National Hole-in-One Association, while the odds on an average golfer making a hole-in-one are 12,700-to-1, the odds on an average golfer making a double eagle is 1,000,000-to-1.
St. Maxens is not your average player. He won the Bobby Gorin Memorial last month, a Mid-Atlantic Conference title during the school year and will continue his golf career at Penn.
This was the first year he was eligible for ‘A’ Team competition. Columbia pro Bob Dolan teamed his oldest player, the 61-year-old West, who has won 14 club championships, with St. Maxens. The duo claimed 2.5 points Saturday. The previous weekend, in the semifinals, they swept their opponents from Beaver Creek, 3-0, helping Columbia to a victory, 10.5-7.5.
It was a long-awaited victory for Columbia, the runner-up to Argyle last year — as well as many other summers since it last won a WMGA title in 1977. It also was a title that demonstrated Columbia’s depth. In winning six matches, Dolan used 26 different players.
“One of the challenges of summer matches is just getting your top players there,Ó said West. “A lot of our guys had scheduling conflicts this year. But we were able to succeed because of our deep bench. Adding young guys, like Colin, always helps too.Ó
