Tim Petrovic revels in rare feat 27 years in the making

Tim Petrovic’s 2021 debut on PGA TOUR Champions included a feat no player had accomplished in 27 years in a PGA TOUR-sanctioned event.

On the way to a tie for sixth at the Cologuard Classic in Tucson, Arizona, last weekend, the 54-year-old Massachusetts native posted holes-in-one in consecutive rounds. The last player to do that was Glen Day at the 1994 PGA TOUR Greater Hartford Open. Day, 55, now is on the Champions Tour, too. He finished T71 in the desert.

Petrovic aced the par-3 16th in Friday’s first round and the par-3 14th in Saturday’s second round. He was playing with Phil Mickelson on Saturday.

“I played with Steve Pate on Friday and for some reason we were talking about holes-in-one before we teed off,” Petrovic said. “I hadn’t had one in six or seven years, and that last one was at my home club. The one on Friday, I had a 6-iron. We teed off on the back nine so it was our seventh hole. It was the hardest pin on the green, on top on the right side. I hit it right at it and I was just about to take my eyeball off it and it I saw it go, ‘Boop.’

“There were three people up there around the green. They said it just went over the cup, never touched the flag.”

Petrovic said he used a 7-iron on Saturday from 189 yards.

“I had a perfect number, hit a little draw,” Petrovic said. “It just carried the bunker about 2 feet onto the green. And it rolled straight in like a putt.

“I saw the replay after and the thing just went dead center. It’s crazy … you go all of these years without one then have them on back-to-back days.”

The replay, which has more than 125,000 views across social media, also shows Petrovic playfully falling to the ground and ending up in the fetal position. He said it was just the disbelief of doing it two days in a row plus since he teed off last in the group his playing partners had walked ahead and there was no one to high-five.

Unfortunately for Petrovic, there were no extra prizes on the line for either of his holes-in-one like there often are on the PGA TOUR.

“Phil goes, ‘Man, that ain’t right. There should be a car there,’” Petrovic said. “They had cars in the pro-am. They should leave them out there for us, too. They had an electric Mustang out there. How sweet would that have been? I’d have thrown my stuff in there and driven myself home.”

Petrovic said those were his 16th and 17th holes-in-one. He wasn’t sure how many of them were in PGA TOUR competition, but that it was always a thrill to get one.

Petrovic said he had played with Day when Day had an ace during the second round of the Bridgestone SENIOR PLAYERS Championship in 2019.

Day remembered his aces from 1994 fondly.

“Hartford had among the biggest crowds of any PGA TOUR event,” said Day, who has 23 aces to his credit, 21 in competition. “I made mine on Friday and Saturday. The Saturday one was at 16. It’s an amphitheater behind the green and you go over to 17 and play a par 4 back around the pond. It’s just a big hill from behind the 16 green all the way around 17. It was just packed.

“I hit a 5-iron. The pin was back left. The ball went in the hole and I put my hands up and this roar happened that scared me to death. And I put my hands down and the hairs on my arm were standing up. It was wild. They were screaming and yelling all the way around the whole thing. Even when I went and played down 17 they were still hollering and screaming. It was the loudest thing I’ve ever, ever heard.”

Day, who swears he nearly made an ace on Sunday, too, but a well struck 3-iron hit the pin and hung on the lip, said he won a Canon fax machine for his Friday hole-in-one and $25,000 for his Saturday ace.

Which one did he get more use out of?

“Well, you know, when you make money it goes to the boss,” Day said, in obvious reference to his wife. “The fax machine I got to see a little bit. I’m not sure I used it much, but I got to see it.”