Golfing gems, or hole in ones, just keep popping up at the Lake Carlsbad Municipal Golf Course. The most recent via local golfing great Sherri Chandler.Chandler, who recorded back-to-back to back individual state championships as a Cavegirl while at Carlsbad High School in 1975, 76 and 77 and then went on to compete collegiately at the University of New Mexico, registered an ace on the muni’s par 3, 126 yard Number 3 hole on Saturday, August 8.“It felt really great,” said Chandler. “It’s been fifteen years or so since I hit my last one.”The former Cavegirl phenom accomplished the feat with a seven iron.“At sixty-one I don’t hit with the distanceI used to. So, I have to use a little more club now,” she said. “But I hit it well. It hit about ten to fifteen feet in front of the pin, bounced once and rolled right into the cup.”According to Chandler, who finished out the day with a three over par round of 75, the hole in one couldn’t have come at a better time.“I had just come off the previous hole with a double bogey after having to take a penalty stroke for an unplayable lie,” said Chandler with a chuckle. “I was just hoping to get a birdie on Number 3.”It was the fourth career ace for the former University of New Mexico Lobo, who at just fifteen years old, carded her first ‘Hole in One’ at the Lake Carlsbad Municipal Golf Course’s Par three, 169 yard sixteenth.Chandler has also recorded aces at the UNM South Course’s No. 3 hole in Albuquerque and the Riverside Country Club’s No. 17. “We both got excited about her hole in one after she hit it,” said Chandler’s playing partner Kay Doss, who witnessed her ace on August 8. “But I thinkI got more excited about it than she did. Sherri’s had four hole in ones, and I’ve had five, but this was the first one that I ever actually saw go in the hole.”Chandler, introduced to golf at an early age by her father Sandford who served as Carlsbad High School’s golf coach during the 1970’s and early 80’s, continues to tee up regularly at the Lake Carlsbad Municipal Golf Course.“I’ve loved to play golf for most all of my life. It’s proven to be a great way to exercise, compete and spend time with my friends,” said Chandler. “Getting a hole in one was just icing on the cake.”
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