{"id":132772,"date":"2025-09-04T17:35:11","date_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:35:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/132772\/"},"modified":"2025-09-04T17:35:11","modified_gmt":"2025-09-04T17:35:11","slug":"the-vineyard-gazette-marthas-vineyard-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/132772\/","title":{"rendered":"The Vineyard Gazette – Martha’s Vineyard News"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Sunday morning, Sandy McArt, 81, stepped up to the par three sixth hole at the Edgartown Golf Club holding her trusty nine wood. The hole was playing 112 yards, with the pin placed in the center of the green, just a bit to the left. Four traps flank the green, two in front and two on the side. There was a slight breeze but otherwise a perfect golf day.<\/p>\n

Two friends in her foursome, Shane and Libby Hiltabrand, had already hit shots that were solid but nothing to write a story about. Then Sandy let it fly. It felt like a good shot, but standing on the tee she didn\u2019t know how good.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was just hoping it cleared the trap,\u201d she said two days later. \u201cThere\u2019s a bunch of grass growing at the back of the trap in the eyebrow and you can\u2019t see whether it went in that or beyond that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Hiltabrand looked through his rangefinder and could see the divot the ball left on the green but no ball. Maybe it was a hole-in-one, he suggested, but no one really believed him.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n Not much more room in the cup after two hole-in-ones. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Libby Hiltabrand<\/p>\n

Just then Sandy\u2019s husband Roger, 86, returned from a bathroom break in the clubhouse. He ignored the minor commotion on the tee box, picked out his six iron and placed his ball, a beat up TaylorMade he had found in the bushes a few holes back, on the tee. Then he took aim and swung. It felt like a good shot, he recalled.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought it might have made it to the green, and it was going right for the center of it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Both shots, the foursome discovered when they made it to the green, had headed straight for the hole and were nestled in the bottom of the cup, which was now a very crowded place with the pin and two balls taking up every inch of space.<\/p>\n

At first no one said anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were in shock,\u201d Sandy said.<\/p>\n

Then they started cheering. Two holes-in-one, hit back to back by a married couple in their 80s \u2014 the odds of something like that occurring are almost incalculable. The McArt\u2019s son later consulted ChatGPT, which put it at 100,000,000 to 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s just no data for something like this,\u201d Roger said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t happen.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n Sandy McArt has hit three hole-in-ones in the last three years. <\/p>\n

\u2014 Ray Ewing <\/p>\n

The moment was quickly verified by Edgartown golf club manager Mark Hess, who was in the vicinity, driving around in a golf cart, keeping play moving on the busy Labor Day weekend. He put the news out on Facebook, revealing also that for Sandy holes-in-one had recently become an annual occurrence. She shot her first one in Florida at the age of 79, a tough 150-yard par three, and another in Florida at the age of 80.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s also in her DNA.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mother hit her first hole-in-one at the age of 80,\u201d she said. \u201cSo this is a poignant reminder of her.\u201d<\/p>\n

It was Roger\u2019s first hole in one.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was beginning to get discouraged,\u201d he admitted, traveling in the wake of his wife\u2019s continued success. \u201cLet\u2019s just say it was no longer a goal, it was a hope. But I was running out of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

Roger began playing golf as a teenager growing up in Ohio, while also caddying at the local club in Cleveland. Sandy, who mostly played tennis all her life, picked up the game about 12 years ago. They live in Oak Bluffs and Florida, playing often down south during the winters. On the Vineyard, they were members for many years of the \u201cNightcrawlers,\u201d a group at the Edgartown Golf Club that emerges after 4 p.m. to battle the course and the receding daylight hours.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a> <\/p>\n

\n Roger McArt started playing golf as a teenager in Cleveland, Ohio. <\/p>\n

On Sunday, they were playing as guests of the Hiltabrands.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe celebrated at the end of the round with champagne and Bloody Marys,\u201d Libby Hiltabrand said.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, while the McArt\u2019s were recounting the story, a group of club members walked by, heading for the practice range but then quickly stopped.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe famous couple,\u201d they called out, crowding around the table. \u201cWhat club did you use Sandy? And how about you Roger?\u201d<\/p>\n

The odds of something like this occurring were once again debated, the potential numbers heavy with zeros and mystery. What was certain, however, was the joy on everyone\u2019s face.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt made us feel younger, all the excitement,\u201d Sandy said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd now I have to go out and find another thing to make me feel younger,\u201d Roger said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"On Sunday morning, Sandy McArt, 81, stepped up to the par three sixth hole at the Edgartown Golf…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132773,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[71],"tags":[427,99],"class_list":["post-132772","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-golf","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132772","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132772"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132772\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132773"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132772"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132772"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132772"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}