After shooting a hole-in-one at Arrowsmith Golf Club Wednesday, Bowser’s Ken Makortoff walked into the clubhouse and proclaimed he should be given one of the club’s hats in honour of the achievement.
Arrowsmith employee Deborah Robinson snapped back that if he hit two holes-in-one in the same week, she’d give him a hat.
Two days later, Makortoff collected his prize.
“I was being sassy,” Robinson said. “That’s not something Arrowsmith does, but I told him if he hit a second one I’d give him a hat, so I bought one for him.”
Makortoff, 67, scored his third and fourth career aces three days apart while playing with friends in the Lighthouse group. The Arrowsmith Golf Club members meet at the course each Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.
“I’m playing again Sunday, and I’m going for three,” he joked.
A retired carpenter who moved to the mid-Island from Castlegar in 1990, Makortoff said he began golfing in his 20s but stopped playing regularly for nearly 20 years until picking it up again three years ago and joining the club at Arrowsmith.
He scored his first hole-in-one while playing in Spokane, Wash., in the early 1980s, and hit his second at Arrowsmith last year on Men’s League night.
Makortoff is not specializing on a single hole, either. Last season’s hole-in-one at Arrowsmith came on the par-3 sixth hole. Wednesday’s ace came on the 110-yard ninth hole, with a nine-iron. He came back Friday to ace the challenging, 170-yard 12th hole using a 6-iron.
“I want to do ‘em all,” he said with a laugh. “No, it’s just one of those things, I guess. All I can say is, keep your head down and try to keep a good swing.”
Scoring all the holes-in-one may make Makortoff a minor club celebrity and earn him free swag, but there is one downside.
“It’s costing me a whole bunch of money, ‘cuz I gotta buy the beer,” he said. “If I get one on Sunday I’m gonna make them buy it. I’m gonna put my foot down.”