Is a hole-in-one front-page news? Maybe in Neighbor

This just in to the newsroom:

Dave Patton of Naperville scored his first hole-in-one on May 22. He used a 5 iron on the 174-yard 7th hole of Course No. 1 at St. Andrews Golf Club in West Chicago.

News of Dave's ace was faxed to us by Michelle Bockrath, pro shop manager at St. Andrews, and was handed off to me with a what-do-I-do-with-this look by one of my editors. The hole-in-one was significant to me for several reasons. Allow me to start with the most self-serving one.

I, too, happened to be playing golf on May 22. And, as luck would have it, I, too, made a hole-in-one. Using a 5 iron. On the 7th hole. Different course, though; I was playing the Links at Carillon in Plainfield with Jeff Nordlund, the Daily Herald's national editor, and a couple guys we were paired with to fill out a foursome. I didn't think much of it at the time, but one of my playing partners remarked, "Hey, you'll probably get your name in the newspaper."

I made a wisecrack about how Jeff and I work for the Daily Herald, and it just might be front-page news. I have to admit I was pretty sure there was a time when we published aces, but it's fallen off the table in recent years as we struggle with downsizing, the mad dash to post breaking news on the Web and other challenges.

But then along comes the faxed "Hole in One Report." Someone at St Andrews thought a hole-in-one was still important to newspapers.

And, hey, isn't being a community newspaper all about chronicling our readers' achievements? To make this happen again, and certainly to give it a little more heft, I enlisted the assistance of Christie Willhite, who edits our Neighbor sections and is the driving force behind much of the citizen journalism that's so in vogue these days. Christie is the creator of Lend a Hand, a feature that allows charitable or philanthropic organizations to explain who they are and what they do. More recently, Christie devised Why We Walk, a chance for the people involved in the myriad walks for good causes to explain why they participate. As much as we pride ourselves on our great writing and storytelling abilities, sometimes people's own words can be just as poignant. Take Joan Camper of Carol Stream, who this week explained why she'll be walking in the Western DuPage Special Recreation Association's Run, Rock and Roll 5K on Sunday. It's because of her son Grant, who is autistic. Thanks to WDSRA, Joan says, Grant, who as a young child recoiled from leaving the house and was upset by even slightly elevated noise levels, "has gone from meltdowns when it was loud to standing in front of a cheering crowd to receive his medal."

I wouldn't put lucky golfers on quite the same importance plane as WDSRA and Grant, but let's give 'em a day in the sun, too. Christie already has devised a form that we'll be sending to our local golf course staffs, asking them to have people like Dave Patton fill out the form electronically and submit to us. We'll even be asking for a picture. The plan is to accumulate a few, and run them in the Neighbor section.

We're seeking the basic info: name; age; hometown; years golfing; any previous holes in one?; course; hole; yardage; club used. We're also taking the potentially dangerous tack of asking the golfers these open-ended questions: "Describe your shot." and "Describe your reaction."

Heck, I could write a whole column about mine.

I had just come off the sixth green with a dreaded "snowman" (an 8). Well, I thought, not going to accomplish anything today. I stood on the 7th tee, pondering club selection. That's a two-club wind, I told Jeff; better take plenty of club.

I pulled out my 5 iron ...

jdavis@dailyherald.com