Teen makes 2 holes-in-one at Canmore golf tournament

Walking up to the 12th tee at the Canmore Golf & Curling Club on Sunday, Adele Sanford, 14, just wanted to get her ball on the green.

It was her first time playing in the club’s annual two-day junior championship tournament, and she was the last in her group to tee off.

Her peers had either landed on the green or just off of it, and she wanted to keep up with them.

“I double checked my line a couple times, and I hit the ball,” she said in an interview on the Calgary Eyeopener.

“When it was in the air, I was like, OK, that’ll be a good shot. I didn’t think it was going in. No one in my group did until I heard someone say, ‘No way,’ from behind me and it hit a great bounce and pulled in… I was in total shock.”

Everyone cheered and jumped up and down around her, Sanford says. As they continued to play, her group spread the word about her feat to others passing by.

As she started the 15th hole, Sanford recalls someone saying, “Imagine you get another one? That would be crazy.”

By this time, a bit of an audience had gathered to watch.

She lined up again and smacked her ball straight down the fairway.

“It just landed at the start of the green and pulled in,” she said. “It was a crazy moment.”

And it’s a moment that’s never happened before, to the knowledge of Darren Cooke, general manager and director of golf at the club.

He says the entire course exploded with excitement when news of Sanford’s two holes-in-one made the rounds.

“I’ve been here for quite a few years and I can’t recall anything like that,” he said.

“You dream about making a hole-in-one, but two in less than an hour? Like, holy smokes.”

He says the accomplishment is all the more impressive because the junior tournament was played on the same course used for the ladies club championship. The tees for the men’s tournament were placed farther back to make the holes longer, but the pin location remained the same.

They set up the course that way to provide a challenge for the players, but Sanford still landed her two holes-in-one.

‘Completely shocked’

It’s something her mother still can’t believe, either.

She was rafting down the Kootenay River in southeastern BC out of cell service that day, and it wasn’t until later in the evening that she heard the news.

“I was completely shocked. Never even imagined, but so proud of her. She practices all the time, so she deserves it,” Kim Sanford said.

“It’s definitely given her the confidence boost, I think, to play in more tournaments.”

Sanford started to play more competitively only about a year ago.

Cooke says he often sees her racing towards the course on her e-bike, clubs in tow, getting in some extra rounds. She also volunteers with the club’s junior program and curls in the winter.

Cooke says the course is looking into a couple of ways they might commemorate the achievement.

“I don’t think she really [knows] kind of the magnitude of what actually happened and the rarity of it,” he said.

“No matter what she does, I think she’s going to be successful.”

Sanford hopes to continue to play competitively, whether it be at a future school or with the Ladies Professional Golf Association.

“I’ve always wanted to make it somewhere in golf.… I hope to continue to play and I want to.”