As word got out that Luke Diel had recorded a hole-in-one on a par 4, his phone started getting flooded with messages, and some advised him to play the lottery.
Considering Diel accomplished a feat that has six million-to-one odds, maybe a scratch-off ticket or two might have been worth taking a chance on.
Diel, a senior at Waynesburg who calls Lower Burrell home, recorded the ultra rare ace on a par 4 during the first round of the Presidents’ Athletic Conference Championships Oct. 14 at Avon Golf and Country Club in Ohio.
“I’ve been asked two questions a lot: ‘Did you see it go in? And did you mean to do it?’ ” Diel said with a laugh. “It still feels pretty surreal that it happened.”
The answer to the first question is no.
Diel, a Mars grad, accomplished the ace on the fifth hole, a dogleg left 308-yard par 4. He hit a 3-wood with a draw on it and knew he hit it well but never could imagine what would transpire next as the ball went out of sight.
A Waynesburg teammate, Cannon Hay, was on the green and had just finished putting when Diel’s ball came rolling in.
“They had the flag out, and a player from Geneva was just about ready to putt when they heard a thud from my ball,” Diel said. “It broke right in and went into the hole. Cannon came out to the side of the green, and I could see him pointing down at the ground. I thought he was just telling me the ball was on the green. Not that it went in. He started yelling, and the rest is history.”
It was reminiscent of the scene in the Adam Sandler movie “Happy Gilmore,” when Gilmore records a hole-in-one on a par four. Diel has heard a few people compare him to Gilmore in the last couple weeks.
To put in perspective how rare an ace on a par 4 is, it’s only happened once in the entire history of the PGA tour. It was accomplished by Andrew McGee at the 2001 Phoenix Open, and McGee needed a favorable bounce off the putter of a competitor who was standing on the green.
It was the first one in PAC competition. Diel and Robert Fox, the sports information director at Waynesburg, are trying to find out if it has happened before in NCAA competition.
Players keep their scores on their phones during the match, so once Diel updated his score on the fifth hole and it showed up on the live leaderboard, he started getting bombarded with text messages in the middle of his round.
“My dad was the first one to text me, and he said that he thought it was a mistake and my mom texted me the same thing. We joke about it now,” Diel said. “The president at Waynesburg, Mr. (Douglas) Lee, texted me and then other faculty and staff texted me. The energy was high for me already, and it was tough to calm down.”
With 13 holes left to play, Diel rode the momentum of the ace for a while and ended up grinding out a 79 the first day as the adrenaline wore thin on the back nine. He came back the next day and fired a career-low 72 to finish seventh overall and help Waynesburg finish fifth in the team standings. It was the first time Waynesburg hadn’t finished last in Diel’s four years.
He did it all without a driver after breaking his a couple days before the tournament.
The team celebrated by having dinner at Buffalo Wild Wings and later having a putting contest in the hallway at the hotel.
Diel still has the spring season to look forward to, but the ace to cap off a fall season was even more special considering some of the struggles he’s had recently with back injuries. He has two separate back ailments and uses acupuncture to ease the pain and loosen it up to play golf.
All of it was worth it to make history.
“Through all of this I have to thank God,” Diel said. “I had a pretty good freshman season and felt like I was on track to do something special here. Everyone has the goal of trying to win a PAC championship. Sophomore year I discovered the back issues and that caused some setbacks in my golf game. Then covid hit and I didn’t get out as much. I ended up shooting scores worse than I was in high school.
“It disappointed me. Even this senior year was a little up and down and going into PAC’s I didn’t know what to expect. I did a lot praying. I feel like finally the work I’ve put in is paying off. I know it’s circumstantial to get a hole in one on a par 4, but to come back the next day and back it up with a 72 tells me that I’m more than just that one shot.”