By Jesse Sindelar | [email protected]

For Kade Patterson, golf has always been in the family. 

“My dad, his dad and so on were all golfers. My father taught me how to golf at a really young age, around three, as his dad did for him,” Patterson said.

Patterson hit a hole-in-one on the third hole at the South Mountain Golf Course this month. Patterson has had an appreciation for the sport for a while now. “I wasn’t too big into the actual sport until about four years ago, my junior year of high school. You start off pretty bad, and then you feel that one good shot that makes the last 100+ horrible shots worth it. Then it just kind of snowballs from there. You watch yourself slowly improve and learn so many things about yourself and the game,” Patterson said.

For the memorable shot, Patterson was playing with his friends at the South Mountain Golf Course in Draper. “To be honest I wasn’t playing very well (that’s golf for you), and we weren’t being very serious, just out to have a good time. I bogeyed the first hole, and double bogeyed the second,” Patterson said.

Patterson and his friends made it to the third hole, par 3, 115 yards. The stage was set. 

“My friend hits first, and gets it about six feet from the hole. The hole placement was ideal, at the bottom of a bowl-shaped green, so everything would feed back down to the flag,” Patterson said. “I pulled out my sand-wedge for some reason, and took a full swing at it. Right as it came off the face, I knew it was good. If you play golf, then you know exactly the feeling I’m talking about. The ball landed exactly where I wanted it to, and proceeded to funnel back down the slope.” 

While the initial shot from Patterson was practically perfect, it took some natural help to complete the hole-in-one. “Right as it passed the hole, it stopped, but you could still see it. I looked over at my friends and said, “Holy crap, I think it is wedged in between the stick and the cup!” Boom, a big gust of wind comes along, and shakes the flag stick a bit, and ball plops in,” Patterson said. 

“It was a bit of a blur to be honest,” Patterson continued. “I threw my club in the air and started sprinting towards the hole. I was in such state of shock, and it was one of the most insane feelings I have ever experienced. Craziest adrenaline rush I’ve ever had.” 

The reaction of Patterson’s friends and family only added fuel to the fire. 

“Pops was definitely a little jealous, as he had never had one, but he was very proud of me. All my family and friends know how much I love golf, so they were really excited for me,” Patterson added.

Regarding his memorable moment, Patterson is aware of the unattainability of the hole-in-one for many golfers. “I always fantasized about the day I would get a hole-in-one, how it would happen, etc. To be honest, I didn’t think it would happen at such a young age (20), because a lot of golfers go their entire lives without getting one. I made a joke to my friends, that it is all downhill from here,” Patterson said.

After such an impressive achievement, Patterson is only looking toward the next chance he will get to try again, and because of the rarity of the achievement, everyone will be rooting for him.

“All jokes aside, it feels fantastic to be able to cross off a life-long goal. Now let’s go get number two!” Patterson said.