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Arlington Hts. golfer hits identical holes-in-one

It's a golfer's goal to hit a hole-in-one. In June, Joe Perica did it twice.

The 70-year-old Arlington Heights resident was golfing with his usual group at the Stonehenge Golf Club in Barrington on June 9 when he encountered the course's eighth hole, a 189-yard par 3.

Perica, a member of Stonehenge since 1985, wielded his 5-wood and whacked the ball off the tee into the wind without carefully aiming his shot. The ball seemed to disappear by the green because the pin was located at an angle where Perica could not easily see it.

Perica and his group searched for the ball but didn't find it. As he scavenged the green for his ball, Perica peered into the hole, removed the pin and found the ball sitting at the bottom.

"I hit it with my 5-wood and it just went in," Perica said. "We didn't even know it went in."

Perica, a retired teacher, had just hit the third hole-in-one of his life. And one week later at the same course with the same club and with the pin in the same exact spot, Perica would do it again.

"It was just amazing," Perica said. "That's all I can say about it."

Although he said it was an accomplishment, Perica said there is certainly some luck involved.

"Any hole-in-one hit over 180 yards is a really lucky hole-in-one," Perica said.

The club manager at Stonehenge, Dean Nissen, agreed it is out of the ordinary to hit a hole-in-one on a par 3 of that length, especially twice.

"We typically have three to five holes-in-one per year (at Stonehenge), but to have two with the same guy is just rare," Nissen said.

Nissen added that only one other hole-in-one has been hit this year on one of the course's four par-3 holes.

Perica hit one of his four holes-in-one at Stonehenge in 1998. The other happened at Fox Hills Golf Club in Cary with the same group of friends he always golfs with.

"I'm not some PGA golfer or a professional," Perica said. "I'm just an average golfer."

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