Bethesda, Md. – Kevin Stadler stole the spotlight from Tiger Woods, at least for one hole.
The Kent Denver graduate, who was Woods’ playing partner for the third round of the AT&T National on Saturday, wowed the gallery with a hole-in-one on the 196-yard, par-3 13th. His shot with a 6-iron landed below the hole, rolled up the slight slope and disappeared into the cup.
“I never expected it was going to go in, but I thought I hit a really good shot,” said Stadler, who has a handful of aces in his career. “It kind of took a hop in the right direction. I was walking up there and the place went crazy.”
Woods and Stadler had both walked off the tee box before Stadler’s ace dropped. They couldn’t see the ball go in, but upon hearing the crowd roar and realizing what happened, Woods gave Stadler an emphatic high-five.
With his ace, Stadler won the hearts of those in the sizable gallery following Woods.
The cheer Stadler received after the hole-in-one was louder than any for Woods during the round.
“That was the most thoroughly enjoyable round of golf I’ve had in who knows how long,” Stadler said.
