It’s an age-old question: If you make a hole-in-one on a short course, does it really count? What if you make one using a golf club known as a chipper? And what if you do it on a course you designed?
Well, for the sake of this story, we’ll say, “Sure, why not?”
Colin Montgomerie made two such aces Monday during the official opening celebration of the Wee Course at Harbor Shores Resort in Benton Harbor, Michigan. Walking and playing a few holes while chatting with media and young players, he dunked one from 43 yards on the third hole, then made another from 60 yards on the fifth. They came on back-to-back swings, as he skipped playing the fourth.
“It was rather strange,” Montgomerie said. “We walked the first couple of holes and decided to hit a few shots. I grabbed one of Mr. Fettig’s clubs – a chipper – and figured I’d give it a try from about 60 yards. Somehow it found the hole. Then, incredibly, I did it again on the very next hole we played. Two holes-in-one in the same day – it’s just unbelievable. When I arrived, 51 aces had been recorded on this course. Now there are 53.”
The Wee Course features nine holes ranging from 20 to 80 yards and a total yardage between 275 and 500 yards depending on which of two tee selections are chosen. The new short layout takes design inspiration from some of the most memorable green complexes found on Harbor Shores’ Jack Nicklaus Signature Design course.
There’s video of both of the aces, one by TV station WSBT 22 of South Bend, Indiana. In that video, you can see Monty chip a short distance to a green then celebrate, but you can’t see the ball go in.
In another video by WOOD-TV in Grand Rapids, Michigan, you can see it all, from the tee shot to the travel of the ball to it hitting the stick and dropping into the cup.
Twice is nice for Montgomerie. The Wee Course at Harbor Shores Resort is the latest fun-sized offering in the golf space. Montgomerie, a member of the World Golf Hall of Fame, won his first senior major at the 2014 Senior PGA Championship presented by KitchenAid at the Golf Club at Harbor Shores in Benton Harbor.
“I am blown away by everything to do with this and the details and vision involved with Jeff Fettig and his group to put this together, and to ask me to help in the design, I am very honored and humbled,” Montgomerie said of his involvement with the Wee Course. “I have designed courses around the world, and to see this now in working order, the quality of everything is the big Harbor Shores course quality. It also gives opportunity to everybody, and without opportunity we don’t know the next Tiger Woods; where are they? Are they out there somewhere? Without opportunity, you don’t know. That is what the Wee Course is all about.”
While golf is at the heart of the Wee Course, the vision was to create a gathering place where any level of player can connect through shared experiences, the resort has said. The aforementioned Jeff Fettig – former chairman and CEO of Whirlpool Corporation, a leading contributor through the Fettig Family Foundation and the visionary behind the Harbor Shores expansion – said the project is already delivering on its original mission. (It didn’t hurt that Montgomerie used his chipper.)
“The Harbor Shores vision has always been to create a positive place for all in our community to enjoy. The Wee Course is the next part of realizing that vision,” Fettig said. “The goal of the Wee Course is to make golf accessible and affordable to everyone. The model is for golf to be the social gathering spot similar to most towns and communities in Scotland, and although it’s only been open for a short time, we are already seeing that happen.”
This article originally appeared on Golfweek: Two swings, two aces for Colin Montgomerie at new Wee Course
