It was just about then that Robinson’s younger brother, Moe, went bonkers.
“I hear Moe hollering, ‘It’s in! It’s in! It’s a hole-in-one!’ and he jumps into my arms and nearly breaks my back,” Robinson said Sunday, laughing.
On Jan. 6, two days before the 50th anniversary of his first NHL game, Robinson shot his first hole-in-one in the 45 or so years that he’s been playing golf.
The 71-year-old 10-time Stanley Cup winner aced the fifth hole of the Tierra del Sol Golf and Country Club in The Villages, the Florida community that he and his wife, Jeannette, call home, a sweet moment that he wishes he had. ‘d seen.
Larry Robinson (second row up, fifth from left) in a team photo from his rookie season with the 1972-73 Montreal Canadiens. Macdonald Stewart/Hockey Hall of Fame
“Moe hit first with a 6-iron, with a bit of a wind in our faces,” Robinson said. “He had about the right distance but was off to the right. I usually use one club less than he does but this time I just choked up a bit on my 6-iron. I didn’t hit it great, maybe a little fat , but I knew it was straight at the pin.
“I figured I’d be on the green so I turned and started to walk away and then I heard Moe yelling. There were seven of us on the tee, three in my foursome and three others playing with us, and I’m the only one who didn’t see the ball go in the hole.”
Then, laughing again: “But I’m so blind that even if I had been watching, I might not have seen it.”
Larry and Moe have heard all the Three Stooges jokes; in fact, they expect them.
“When we check in at the pro shop, they ask, ‘What’s your name?’ and I say Larry,” Robinson said. “Then they ask, ‘What’s your guest’s name?’ and I say Moe. And then they always say, ‘Is Shemp here, too?'”
Moe Robinson with the 1976-77 major-junior Kingston Canadiens (left) and the Nova Scotia Voyageurs of the American Hockey League in the late 1970s. Montreal Canadiens files
Another gag is that Moe had his Canadiens jersey retired before his legendary brother, who is older by six years. Moe wore no. 2 for his only NHL game, played on the road for Montreal against the Winnipeg Jets on Dec. 15, 1979; Larry played 1,202 games for the Canadiens from 1972-73 to 1988-89, then 182 more for the Los Angeles Kings during three seasons on his way to Hockey Hall of Fame induction in 1995.
The Canadiens retired no. 2 for iconic defenseman Doug Harvey on Oct. 26, 1985, no. 19 for Larry Robinson on Nov. 19, 2007.
“That guy Harvey, he was just lucky,” Larry joked of the man who was the greatest defenseman in the NHL until the arrival of Bobby Orr with the Boston Bruins.
Moe Robinson helped organize a special event in August 2022, celebrating Larry at the 50th edition of the Ottawa Valley Hockey Oldtimers golf tournament in the neck of the woods the brothers called their boyhood home.
Robinson had opened his Florida round on Jan. 6 with four bogeys when he arrived at the fifth hole, putting his tee shot into the cup to touch off a wild celebration.
Larry Robinson as coach of the 2000-01 New Jersey Devils, and with the Los Angeles Kings, circa 1990. Getty Images
“I was literally shaking when I got up on the sixth (tee), out of breath,” he said. “I think I’d have been even more excited had I seen it. I was just going off the fact that everyone else was jumping around. It was the first hole-in-one that Moe had seen live.”
Buoyed by the ace, Robinson rolled off two pars and a birdie before taking a double-bogey on the ninth hole to make the turn at 39, equal to Moe. He shot 44 on the back nine for a round of 11-over 83, his brother one shot better.
Back in the clubhouse, Robinson registered the hole-in-one and with a black Sharpie penned the details on the Srixon ball that didn’t require a single putt on the fifth hole. The ball and the scorecard will be built into a shadow-box frame by his brother-in-law, “a real handyman who’s staying the winter with us.”
It’s apples and oranges, Robinson said, to compare the individual accomplishment of a hole-in-one to a Stanley Cup — or 10 — that’s won on a team. He won six as a Canadiens defenseman (1973, 1976-79, 1986) then three more off the ice with the New Jersey Devils, as coach in 2000 and as assistant coach in 1995 and 2003, and one more as a senior consultant with the St. Louis Blues in 2019.
Montreal Canadiens defenseman Larry Robinson and Pittsburgh Penguins captain Mario Lemieux have a chat during a 1980s game at the Montreal Forum. Denis Brodeur, Getty Images
Robinson retired from hockey following the Blues’ championship, his 46-year life in the NHL having seen him win the Norris Trophy as the best defenseman in the NHL in 1976-77 and 1979-80, and the Conn Smythe Trophy as the most valuable. player in the Stanley Cup Playoffs in 1977-78.
Between his debut with the Canadiens on Jan. 8, 1972, and his final game with the Kings on April 14, 1992, Robinson had 958 points (208 goals, 750 assists) in 1,384 regular-season games, and 144 points (28 goals, 116 assists) in 227 playoff games.
He’ll watch plenty of hockey this winter from the comfort of his home and enjoy lots of golf with Moe and other regulars with whom he plays to an 11- or 12-handicap three or four times per week.
“I’ve come close before,” he said of an ace. “I played in a tournament in Montreal that finished with a par-3, which you don’t see very often. They offered a car for a hole-in-one, and I hit the pin on a bounce.”
If that one missed by a whisker, Robinson was perfect Jan. 6. He won’t ever forget a 6-iron swing that ended magically, out of his sight, as pure a shot as any he took to score his 208 NHL goals.
“And you know what?” he said. “I didn’t see most of those either.”
Top photo: Larry Robinson at home in Florida on Jan. 8, 2023, with the ball and scorecard from his first hole-in-one. Courtesy Jeannette Robinson
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