Guenther Popp and Doug Wretberg work across the hall from each other at the Newspaper Agency Corp.
Popp, a printer, and Wretberg, a pressman, are avid golfers. They share another distinction: They both recorded their first holes in one on the same day - Sept. 22 - albeit on different courses.Popp's ace came on the No. 5 hole at Mount Ogden. "I told the guys I was playing with that one of us ought to get a hole in one," Popp said. He hit a 9-iron 125 yards into the cup. His two companions - Jon Ringwood and Vern Elsberry of the Deseret News - watched it go in, as did a greenskeeper who had driven up behind the trio.
"They told me to hit an 8-iron," Popp said. "I hit a 9. It was a line drive, but the ball was right on line. It hit the middle of the green and rolled out of sight. Ringwood was yelling, `It went in the hole! It's in the hole!' Elsberry also said it went in. I thought it had rolled off the back."
It was the only good thing about his round that day. Even with his ace, he shot 58 for the front nine.
Wretberg, on the other hand, hit a 7-iron on the 152-yard No. 4 hole at Wasatch Mountain State Park's Canyon course. He didn't see it go in, and neither did his wife, Marlene, who was playing with him.
"When she got to the green and looked in the cup, she was ecstatic," Wretberg said, trying to stifle a grin. "She was more excited than I was. Even the kid outside the clubhouse was jumping up and down after I reported it." Wretberg said he hit a "good, solid shot. It was no fluke. I've been hitting my irons well all year . . . and that was a well-struck 7 iron."
Wretberg posted a 40 for the nine holes, which included a double bogey on No. 8.
"I don't think it (a hole in one) is as big a deal these days," he said. "You've got a million golfers out there." But how many of them have a "1" on their scorecard?