‘Best golf day of my life’: D3 golfer reaches the same hole twice in the same day

Do you think one hole-in-one is impressive? Try two holes-in-one, on the same day, on the same hole.

That’s exactly what Sewanee sophomore Niel Phillips did Monday at the Chick-Fil-A Invitational in Rome, Georgia.

“It was something different, that’s for sure,” Phillips told Golf Channel by phone Monday evening. “Two good swings and some luck.”

With the tournament’s 36-hole day requiring back-to-back shotgun starts, Phillips, a New Orleans native who competed on the Tigers’ B team, started his first round on the par-3 eighth hole at Stonebridge Country Club and holed a 6-iron from 182 yards for the first ace.

“It was 8:30 in the morning, first time of the day, cold and wet, so it was probably more like a 195 shot,” Phillips said. “And I just flushed it.”

Phillips then played his next four holes in a combined 5 over, but birdies at Nos. 15-17 and a string of pars allowed him to polish off an even-par 72.

Then Phillips moved back to No. 8 to begin his second lap. With the hole locations remaining the same, Phillips took one less club, a 7-iron, and hit his tee shot again.

“He went pretty crazy,” Sewanee head coach Keenan Hickton said. “On the first one we were pretty sure it went in. And on the second one it was the same shot, perfectly straight and never left the flag, but the sun was a little bit different so we weren’t sure if it went in, and I think we were both just in disbelief that it wouldn’t be possible. But as we walked up there, the closer we got, we saw a ball mark about four feet short and you couldn’t get anything else anywhere on the green to see.

“I don’t know how he played golf the next five or six holes because everyone in the group was just in shock.”

Phillips added, “I was in disbelief, like that couldn’t possibly happen.”

This is believed to be the first time a college player at any level has achieved the same hole in consecutive rounds on the same day.

For Phillips, the holes-in-one were Nos. 2 and 3 of his career; His first came from 121 yards in a Kelly Gibson Junior Tour event when he was 13 years old.

Phillips finished the day at 1 under after his second-round 71, which also included four birdies in a five-hole stretch from Nos. 2-6. Phillips, who has every score up to ‘7’ through 36 holes, enters Tuesday’s final round solo in ninth, four shots off the lead.

“It was a very up and down day and I played very average otherwise, so it’s hard to put this above the tournament wins I had in high school,” Phillips said. “But so far in college, this is No. 1 – and maybe, forget the tournament, this might be the best day of golf in my life. I can’t beat two holes-in-one on the same hole on the same day, and the first swing of the day. Crazy.”

This is Phillips’ third start of the fall. He finished 82nd out of 96 players at Sewanee’s fall opener, the Gate City Invitational (Phillips recorded two eagles at that event), and most recently came last in the 87-man Tartan Invitational, although that was because he withdrew during his second round with a stomach flu. He is ranked No. 831 according to the leaderboard, while Sewanee as a team is ranked fifth nationally.

“That will change pretty quickly,” Phillips said of his ranking.

When asked how Phillips’ rare achievement will be commemorated, Hickton had already begun brainstorming, although he did admit one thing: Phillips had already lost one of the balls and put the first hole-in-one ball in the water on the next hole.

“People don’t need to know that – it was the same ball, the same ball,” Phillips joked. “But no, the next three holes after that are just absolute waterball holes, and I didn’t escape it that well. I think I was a little distracted. I probably should have kept it and put it in the bag, but it’s your lucky ball, right, you gotta keep playing with the lucky ball, maybe you’ll make another one – and I did.”