Christmas 18—Mark Hutchins hit his second shot from the ninth fairway at Thurmont’s Maple Run Golf Club well on June 26. It was a nine-iron about 115 yards from the flagstick, and the ball dropped 12 inches from the cup before bouncing in.
That shot meant he recorded a rare double eagle, or albatross, on the par 5, which occurs when a player shoots three-under on a hole. And it wasn’t the first time he’s done it.
“I had one in my 20s that I never even saw because it was 225 yards away,” Hutchins said Tuesday. “This one I saw.”
Although the 65-year-old didn’t have much of a reaction to sinking the shot, Hutchins said he was surprised at how rare an albatross is when he looked it up later that day.
Although estimates vary, the odds of firing a double eagle usually start at 1 million to 1, according to the PGA and the Double Eagle Club, which tracks the feat. That makes it less common than a hole-in-one.
It’s no surprise, then, that the two other people he was playing with, John Offutt and Bob Bennett, were ecstatic at what they witnessed.
“They got more excited than I did,” Hutchins said.
He made easy work of the ninth hole — the second-longest at Maple Run — at his weekly senior league play. Hutchins hit a roughly 315-yard drive off the senior tees, which measures about 430 yards on the hole.
He then hit a straight second shot and sank it.
“It just disappeared into the hole,” he said.
Hutchins, who has an 18-hole handicap of eight, used to play golf regularly until the early 2010s. He picked the activity back up during the COVID-19 pandemic, as golf courses were one of the first places to reopen following the initial lockdowns.
In just a couple of years, he now has this unique achievement.