Vernon golfer records rare par-4 ace on home course
Published 9:00 pm Friday, August 28, 2026
It was a very happy 21st birthday for Zack Casagrande.
And a bit of a costly one.
The Vernon Golf and Country Club pro shop employee’s first-ever hole-in-one – at the very course he works – came on the Trail Tire Shotgun Start Men’s Day event Wednesday, Aug. 26, the day before his birthday.
After the round, Casagrande carried on golf’s long-standing tradition of buying beverages – in this case, a jug of beer for each group in the clubhouse – after firing an ace.
“I’m not sure what the damage was to my wallet,” laughed Casagrande on Thursday, Aug. 27. “I had a few hours of sleep and made it to work for 6 a.m.”
Making the rare feat even more special is that Casagrande recorded the hole-in-one on a par 4, the 300-yard (from the back gold tees) 11th hole.
Playing with Brooks Jones, Spencer Hornoi, and Bob Bennett, the right-handed Casagrande was the last to hit on that hole, which had also brought to the tee box the foursome behind them.
Seven people witnessed Casagrande take out his Taylor Made Q.I. 10 driver, and blast his Titleist Pro V1 golf ball right down the middle of the fairway toward the pin 300 yards away.
“One of the guys thought I went long, over the green,” said Casagrande, who spent the spring and early part of summer playing box lacrosse as a scoring sniper for the North Okanagan Reapers.
“We got up to the green and went looking beyond the hole for the ball but couldn’t find it. It was Bob who went and looked in the hole and found my ball.
“I remember freaking out but that’s about it. I kind of blacked out after that.”
The tournament’s format for that day was that every player played their own ball, but the group put down the best score. The quartet was thrilled to mark down a one on their scorecard.
For Casagrande, the first-ever hole-in-one comes after being close to the feat “lot of times,” he said.
But doing it on a par-4, and using a driver?
“I’ve never thought to do that, and never thought I’d get an ace,” he said.