Column: Lady Luck hugs local contractor

Published 10:39 pm Saturday, May 20, 2006

I want to purchase two plane tickets to Las Vegas and take Roger Farmer with me. Farmer, a 55-year-old Dalton roofing contractor, is on a roll.

On Saturday, Farmer paid $40 for 10 chances to get close to the pin in the Rotary Club’s golf shootout at Dalton Golf and Country Club.

On his first five chances, Farmer put five shots on the green but well past the hole.

That was just a warmup.

On his second five-shot crack at the pin, Farmer recorded two holes-in-one in his first three shots.

That’s right. Two.

Not one. Two.

Golf Digest, in a story printed in 1999, reported that an insurance company put a PGA Tour pro’s chances of making a hole-in-one at 1 in 3,756 and an amateur’s at 1 in 12,750. In that same issue, the magazine reported that the “odds of an amateur making two holes-in-one in a round are 9,222,500 to 1.”

Well, Roger Farmer just beat the bank.

“That was just sheer luck,” Farmer said. “I’ve made four holes-in-one and they’ve all come since last summer. I got one at Nob North and one at Bear Trace in Chattanooga.”

Farmer now awaits the final five qualifiers from competition today at DGCC for the shootout finals Monday afternoon at 5 p.m. The 10 golfers will take their shots on the 150-yard, par-3 ninth hole.

Don’t bet against Farmer, who said he’s an “8 to 10 handicapper” who’s been playing golf for 10 years.

I played golf for about 10 years and gave it up due to extreme frustration of hitting the ball into trees, water, sand and places not accounted for in the rules of golf.

Roger Farmer has no intentions of quitting his day job to concentrate on golf, but there is an argument to be made that he should strike while the iron is hot.

His luck is unbelievable.

A week ago Farmer entered a fishing tournament on Weiss Lake and won a $12,000 boat. There were 39 boats in the tournament. Had there been a 40th, Farmer would have claimed an expensive motor to go with that boat he won.

“My luck isn’t all good,” said Farmer, who fished professionally for 20 years before quitting. “But I’d like to take my chances in Las Vegas.”

His lowest round of golf is a 71 and that came last summer at Nob North.

On Saturday, Farmer used a pitching wedge on all 10 shots Saturday.

His first ace hit the green, bounced once and “sucked right back in the hole,” he said.

Farmer, who tries to play at least twice a week, was tickled to death and other golfers gave him celebratory high-fives.

His next attempt in the second five-shot sequence stopped about 10 feet to the right of the cup.

His third shot hit in almost the same spot as the first, bounced once and went into the hole.

“The first one was nothing but luck,” Farmer said. “I don’t know what you call the second one. A mircale, I guess.”

Come Monday, Farmer will be back at the country club vying for the $1 million prize that can be won only by hitting a hole-in-one.

“I don’t know if you can calculate the odds on me doing that again,” the personable Farmer said. “I wish I hadn’t wasted one of those (Saturday). It would have been nice to save one for Monday.”

With the streak he’s on, Farmer just might have another one in his bag.

If he gets another ace, I’m booking us both — first class — on the next airplane to Vegas.