Esther Pelletier, who started playing golf in 1942, was in an “ornery mood” after carding a triple bogey on the sixth hole at Middleton (Mass.) Golf Course. But then, after she teed off with a five-iron on the 7th hole, she was told by her playing partners (because her eyesight wasn’t good enough to see to the hole) that she’d scored a 110-yard ace.
Esther Pelletier was in an ornery mood after carding a triple-bogey six on the par-3 sixth hole at Middleton (Mass.) Golf Course, the Associated Press reported. And as she started walking with her pull-cart to the next tee, not realizing the brake was on, she got even madder.
“Maybe it’s time I quit,” Pelletier, of Andover, Mass., told her regular playing partners, Nancy Rainville, of North Andover, Mass. and Elizabeth Weilbacher, of Gloucester, Mass.
Rainville and Weilbacher convinced her otherwise, the AP reported. And thankfully so—because Pelletier’s next shot proved to be one of the most memorable of her golfing career, which began in 1942.
Pelletier teed off with a five-iron from Middleton GC’s seventh tee and scored a hole-in-one, which was, at age 91, the first of her 74-year golfing career.
“I was feeling for sorry for myself,” Pelletier said after the historic shot. “I haven’t played well this year—too many 5s and 6s.”
“I just hit the ball and after that I couldn’t see it when it got close to the green,” she said. “My eyesight isn’t as good as it used to be. The girls both said, ‘Did you see that? It went in … It disappeared!’ I said, ‘Don’t just say that to make me feel good.’
“We walked up to the green and I went right to the hole,” Pelletier continued. ‘They were right—it was right there in the hole. We gave each other high-fives.”
Pelletier’s shot, said Rainville, landed in front of the green and rolled “gently” toward the cup before fallling in.
“It was so exciting for me. I had never seen a hole-in-one,” said the 69-year-old Rainville. “Esther can’t see that far, so we tell her where her ball goes. She was very excited. We all were.”
Pelletier received a certificate from Middleton GC stating that she hit her 5-iron 140 yards for the hole-in-one, but she disputed the yardage, the AP reported.
“I don’t agree,” she quipped. “That hole couldn’t be longer than 110 yards. But I’ll take it.”
Pelletier has been playing in Middleton’s Women’s League for more than a decade, the AP reported, always taking the first tee time at 7:30 a.m.
“She’s the first one here in the morning, ready to go,” said Linda Lacroix, Middleton’s course manager. “She’s an amazing person. Some people drive a cart. She walks every time.”
But golf is not Pelletier’s only athletic activity, the AP reported. She lifts weights or swims five days a week at the YMCA. She only stopped running three years ago, after starting at age 74.
“I’m just a regular person,” said Pelletier. “I’m five feet tall. I’ve always played golf. I enjoy going to the ‘Y’ to lift weights and swim. My biggest problem is I hate getting old. I hate it.”
Pelletier, who lost her husband in Bob Pelletier in 2001, lives alone and still drives, shops and cleans her house, like she always has, the AP reported. Virtually every vacation that she and her husband took over the years was centered around golf, she said.
“What’s striking about Esther is her competitiveness,” said Rainville. “To this day she hates to lose. In our group Elizabeth usually as the best score. Esther is second-best. They’re both better than me.”
Tell Us What You Think!
You must be logged in to post a comment.