Peggy Puckett
So, Lea Ann, tell me, how do you practice for a hole-in-one? I know you must, since you’ve gotten six of them in the last seven years!
“Well, I don’t. I just step up on the tee box and use the driver, regardless of the distance. Generally, the distance on the par 3s is about the same as what I hit my drive on a typical par 4 or 5 hole. So, it just seems to work out.”
You mean, you don’t go out to the range with a 7-iron and try to hit a straight ball 120 yards for a solid hour? I mean, really?
“Nope, but, truthfully, if there’s a tailwind, I might back off and use my 3-wood.”
Lea Ann was among the four women golfers who split the Women’s Golf Association’s $645 hole-in-one bucket-of-money to celebrate their 2024 accomplishments. WGA members who also shared in the winnings were Malinda Hall (hole 7 north), Mary Ann Wood (hole 7 north), and Ann Bedinger (hole 7 north). Lea Ann Kirby’s hole-in-one was on hole 2 on the west course. In order to qualify, a WGA member must be playing an 18-hole round and have her shot witnessed by two other WGA, MGA, or WLN members in good standing.
These holes-in-one are considered to be quite an achievement, since the odds for the average female amateur golfer are estimated to be about 12,000 to 1.