Some golfers are lucky enough to experience a hole-in-one in their lifetime. For senior women’s golfer Chloe Wong, she experienced her third hole in one last year in a fall qualifier.

In October of 2015, Wong teed off with her 5-iron on the par-3 17th hole and sank her tee shot for an ace at Meadowview Golf Course in Mattoon. This was Wong’s first hole-in-one as an Eastern Panther.

When a golfer hits a hole-in-one, it would be expected for them to watch the ball until it lands. In this instance, Wong said her senior teammate Erika Von Itter was the one who saw the ball roll in.

“I hit the shot and I was about to turn away,” Wong said. “When Erika just started jumping around and screaming and saying that it went in the hole and I didn’t believe her at first.”

Elated from witnessing her third hole-in-one in her life, Von Itter was excited to watch her teammate accomplish such a feat.

“She had no idea the ball went in and I just started screaming. I ran up to her and picked her up for a big hug,” Von Itter said. “I was so excited for her. This was the third hole-in-one I had witnessed. I’m glad I was able to be there to witness it with her.”

This is not the first time Wong has missed her own hole-in-one. In her life, she has hit three and has turned prematurely for all of them.

Even though she hit the hole-in-one over a year ago, she remembers some specific moments as she stepped to the tee.

Wong said the qualifier began around 3 p.m. and when she stood at the 17th hole, the time was around 5:30 p.m. and she was incredibly tired.

“I remember it was getting late,” Wong said. “Erika and I didn’t get out and play our qualifier probably until 3 p.m. so it was probably pushing 5:30 p.m. or 6 when we got to that hole. It was starting to get dark and I was getting pretty tired over the ball.”

As if hitting a hole-in-one was not hard enough with physical fatigue and darkness setting in, there was another impeding factor: wind.

“The wind was blowing against us so I wasn’t sure if it was going to be short or not,” Wong said.

Exhausted and wind going against her, Wong approached the tee and was ready to tee off and head home. Wong said her mentality was just to hit the ball and when she did, Wong knew it was a good shot.

“I stepped up to it and just said, ‘you know what, you’re almost done’ just hit a good shot and then once I hit it, I knew it was good,” Wong said. “It was solid off the club face and it was going towards the hole.”

Wong said prior to the qualifier, she was struggling with her shot with the 5-iron. After the hole-in-one, Wong regained her confidence.

“I was struggling with the timing of my swing leading up to the qualifier,” Wong said, “but after hitting the shot it really did boost my confidence.All I needed was that one shot to remind me of what it feels like to hit it straight off the club face.”

With all of those conditions, Von Itter said she did not expect a hole-in-one from Wong’s tee shot. Regardless, once Von Itter saw the ball headed towards the green, she continued to watch in case something came of it.

“It wasn’t the most pure shot I’ve seen Chloe hit,” Von Itter said. “but I kept my eye on it because I saw it heading for the green.”

Since it was only Wong and Von Itter at the hole, nobody else on the team was paying attention to her shot.

Von Itter said the way that the team was able to realize Wong’s accomplishment was due to her screams.

“I think everyone on the course pretty much knew what had happened from all the commotion I was making.

Since this was a qualifier, her hole-in-one came prior to her getting into the Evansville tournament. At the end of the tournament, Wong tied for 22nd, scoring a 161 over a 36 hole weekend.

Aside from hitting the hole-in-one, Wong has had other personal accomplishments. Wong hit her lowest score, a 76, at conference her sophomore year and then again during a round junior year.

Regardless of her personal low round scores, Wong said this is definitely one that she will remember.

“My biggest accomplishment was probably getting a hole-in-one,” Wong said.

Adam Shay can be reached at 581-2812 or acshay@eiu.edu