Charli Aris like her first ace so much, she made another 5 holes later
FLORENCE – Charli Aris came to the sixth hole at Blackberry Trail Golf Course recently, still searching for her first hole-in-one.
Granted, the West Point High School senior hasn’t been playing golf for very long. She says she started playing in the eighth grade – so only about five years. With no aces to her credit, when she pulled her pitching wedge on the 122-yard hole that was playing into the wind, a hole-in-one wasn’t on her mind.
Instead, Aris was just trying to learn as much about Blackberry Trail as possible during a practice round for the Class 4A/5A sub-state tournament.
She made her swing. The shot was true. It flew into the hole.
“At first, I was like ‘did that go in?’” she said. “I was kind of in shock. There were some boys on another tee box and they took off running and I was like, ‘oh, it went in.’ And we were cheering. It was great.”
But there’s more to the Charli Aris story. A lot more.
She played the next four holes before arriving at the tee box on No. 11, another par 3 that plays about 100 yards depending on the pin position. On this Friday afternoon, the pin was in the front left portion of the green. She pulled her gap wedge.
“That’s pretty much my gap wedge distance,” she said.
Once again, her shot was on line. It hit about four feet in front of the hole, bounced once and “trickled in.”
“I was like, ‘did that one go in? That’s two in a row,’” she said. “Those same boys (that saw the first one) took off running again. It was hilarious.”
Where did she celebrate?
The celebration with her teammates was loud.
“We made a lot of noise,” she said. “I had lots of calls and messages.”
She didn’t have to buy soft drinks for her aces, though. Instead, she got to pick the restaurant for the postgame meal.
That restaurant? Zaxby’s.
“We were finishing right about dark and the clubhouse was closed, so we went to Zaxby’s,” she said. “I had so many people call me and tell me they were going to take me to Tennessee (to buy lottery tickets).”
Three days later Aris was back at Blackberry Trail with her team, trying to qualify for the state tournament. The Wallace State-Hanceville Community College signee shot 80 and helped her team qualify for the state tournament.
Unfortunately, she couldn’t repeat her two holes-in-one feat. After all, the odds of making one hole-in-one during a round are approximately 12,500-to-1. Making two in the same round? The odds jump to 67 million-to-1.
“I was thinking about how crazy it would be if I did it again,” she confessed. “But it wasn’t even close. On No. 6, I was like completely on the other side of the green. On No. 11, I was like 10 feet.”
Aris plays most of her golf in Cullman County, including Terri Pines Country Club. She said she had been close to making a hole-in-one before, but never had one.
“I’ve been close at Cross Creek and Chesley Oaks, I’ve been close. But never real close at Terri Pines,” she said.
And now she has two – in one day in one unforgettable round.
Featured image: Charli Aris
Gregg Dewalt is the editor of Alabama Golf News
Have a story idea or a news item to report to Alabama Golf News? Email gregg@alabamagolfnews.com
