Columnist Brian Hilderbrand: Double hole in one puts spotlight on Las Vegan

BRIAN HILDERBRAND is a Las Vegas SUN sportswriter. His golf column appears Tuesdays. He can be reached on the Internet at [email protected]

Bill Brink has received national recognition as a result of his recording two holes in one during the same round last week at the Tournament Players Club at Summerlin.

But the odds-defying feat has not come without its down side for the retired 51-year-old Las Vegan.

"I'm getting a lot of razzing from my friends, saying they're not going to give me strokes any more," Brink said with a laugh. "But they've seen me play and they know I can be bad, too."

Other than the fact he will probably never again get strokes in his twice-weekly games at the TPC, Brink said he is enjoying his moment in the limelight.

"It really has been a lot of fun," Brink said. "The phone has been ringing a lot. The Golf Channel will have a blurb on it that's supposed to air (Monday night). On Wednesday, I'm going to be on Dennis Silvers' ("19th Hole") radio show.

"Other than that, we just sent a lot of letters to people, family and friends, so everybody knows what happened."

Brink made his first ace on the fifth hole at TPC last Tuesday, a 6-iron shot that found the cup from what he estimated to be 170 yards. It was the second hole in one for the retired business executive who moved to Las Vegas a year and a half ago.

"I had one about five years ago when we lived in Chicago," Brink said. "And that was real exciting (but) I could hardly play the next hole. When I stepped up to the tee on the next hole, my hands were shaking and it was really hard to hit the ball."

Brink had no such problems last week -- even after he accomplished the improbable by acing the 161-yard 17th hole with an 8-iron.

"It was a lot better Tuesday because I played well all day here," Brink said. "I really didn't get that rattled by it, which was interesting because I thought I really would. Well, I did bogey 18, but at least I got off the tee instead of hitting it in the desert somewhere, which would have been easy to do."

Brink's second ace of the day was even more incredible because, in a way, he called it.

"We were kind of joking going up to the (17th) tee," Brink said. "I said, 'This is your last chance, guys, to get an ace.' The first guy hooked his shot left into the lake on 17 and the other guy pushed it into the sand trap and I said, 'Well, I guess I'll have to show you how it's done.'

"I hit it and I said, 'That's a little too far but at least I'm putting.'"

Brink said he didn't watch the entire flight of the ball because he thought he had hit it long. Instead, he bent over to pick his tee off the ground.

"I went to pick up the tee and I heard these guys drop their golf clubs and saw them grab their heads," Brink said of his playing partners. "They said, 'It went in, I don't believe it.' I didn't quite see it drop in the hole because I really thought I had hit it over the flag.

"Like I said, it has been real fun. As the guy I was playing with said, they've seen something they're not likely to ever see again. It was a real special event and we've had a great time with it."

* SNI-CYGA TUNEUP: Dwaine Knight, head coach of the 1998 NCAA Champion UNLV golf team, will hold a clinic for members of the Southern Nevada Inner-City Youth Golf Association this Saturday at 8 a.m. at the Las Vegas International Golf Center. Knight will help fine-tune the games of several SNI-CYGA members who are preparing to compete in the Western States Junior Golf Championships, to be held Aug. 5-7 in Phoenix. Last year, 20 junior golfers from the Las Vegas area traveled to Denver for the annual tournament and SNI-CYGA member Alex Scott won his age division. This year, 34 locals players are making the trip to Phoenix.

* AMATEUR RANKINGS: UNLV graduate Bill Lunde is ranked 33rd in the latest Golfweek/Titleist Amateur Rankings. Georgia Tech junior-to-be Matt Kuchar, the reigning U.S. Amateur champion, continues to be ranked No. 1 in the country among men. In the boys' rankings, incoming UNLV freshman Robert Sul is rated 35th, tied with Las Vegas' Randy Creighton.

* PLAYERS SOUGHT: The Badlands Golf Club and Senior Tour Players, Inc, are hosting a golf outing on July 22 beginning at 1:30 p.m. to recruit players for the $100,000 Challenge Golf Marathon. The Challenge Golf Marathon, held annually to benefit the Boulder Dam Area Council of the Boy Scouts, will involve 40 players who will golf from sunrise to sundown at The Badlands on Sept. 2 to raise scholarship money for the Scouts. Interested golfers should call Mike Miller at 736-4366 for additional information.

* CHARITY TOURNEYS: The Shade Tree Shelter will hold its fourth annual golf tournament and silent auction on Monday, July 27, at the Stallion Mountain Country Club. The scramble-format tournament will start at 1:30 p.m. and the entry fee of $150 includes cart and greens fees, tee gifts and admission to a cocktail party and dinner following the tournament. Call 451-7150 for details. ... The 11th annual Candlelighters Golf Classic to benefit children with cancer will be held Aug. 14 at Painted Desert Golf Club. Entry fee for the four-person scramble is $800 per team. Call 737-1919 for additional information. ... Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity will hold the second annual Judge A.D. Gut III Memorial Golf Tournament on Aug. 15 at Palm Valley Golf Club. Entry fee is $125 per player. Call 796-1419 for registration information. ... The fifth annual YMCA of Southern Nevada Golf Tournament, to benefit YMCA's "Yes to Youth" programs for at-risk youth, will be held Aug. 24 at Stallion Mountain Country Club. Entry fee is $300 per player of $1,100 for a team of four. Call 877-9622 for details.

* SWING WITH GAMEZ: Local PGA Tour player Robert Gamez will host "Summer Swing '98" on Monday, Aug. 17 at Angel Park Golf Club's Mountain Course. Proceeds from the four-person scramble, which will begin with a 1 p.m. shotgun start, will benefit the Robert Gamez Foundation, a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to several youth-related charities in Southern Nevada. The $200 per-player entry fee includes greens fees and cart, tee prizes and awards and a post-tournament dinner. For information on the tournament, call 256-5183.

* UPCOMING EVENTS: Most of the PGA Tour's best will be in England this week for the 126th British Open at Royal Birkdale Golf Club in Southport. Justin Leonard is the defending champion. ESPN will televise Thursday and Friday beginning at 6 a.m. each day; ABC will televise Saturday and Sunday beginning at 7 a.m. ... Those who didn't qualify for the British Open will be in Madison, Miss., for the PGA Tour's Deposit Guaranty Golf Classic at Annandale Golf Club. Billy Ray Brown won last year's event; The Golf Channel will televise. ... The Senior PGA Tour is in Long Grove, Ill., for the Ameritech Senior Open at Kemper Lakes. Gil Morgan is the defending champion; CBS will televise Saturday and Sunday. ... The LPGA Tour is in New York for the JAL Big Apple Classic at Wykagyl Country Club. Michele Redman won last year's event; NBC will televise Saturday and Sunday.

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