Don Papin’s 338-yard hole-in-one 11 years ago at City Park Golf Course has finally received some recognition.
A commemorative plaque recently was placed near the tee box of the par-4 No. 13, honoring Papin’s feat that he accomplished May 4, 2004.
Papin was playing in a City Park Players Club event when he ripped a drive down the fairway on No. 13. Papin, 67, recalled thinking he had caught it on the sweet spot. But he couldn’t imagine the ball would find the cup.
“There’s a bunker about 50 yards short of the green, and I was hoping it would clear that,” Papin said. “When I saw it sail over that, I thought it might roll up toward the green.”
The 13th plays slightly uphill, so Papin could not see what happened with his shot after it cleared the sand bunker. The group playing ahead was on the green.
“They started waving their arms,” Papin said. “I thought they were mad at me because I was driving into them. So I told the next guy in our group that he’d better wait before he took his turn.”
Papin then noticed that players on an adjacent hole also were waving at him, having also witnessed the hole-in-one. Both groups rushed over to congratulate Papin.
“I couldn’t believe it,” Papin said.
The group on the green told Papin that his ball nearly hit a player who was about to putt and didn’t see Papin’s ball rolling toward him.
Papin’s hole-in-one does not rank among the longest ever recorded. In 2007, Bret Melson aced the 448-yard, par-4 18th at Ko’olau Golf Club in Oahu, Hawaii. That was said to have broken the previous mark of 444 yards by Robert Mitera in 1965 at Miracle Hills Golf Club in Omaha.
Tom Woodard, City Park’s director of golf at the time of Papin’s hole-in-one, said he can’t imagine there are many, if any, longer aces recorded in the Denver area.
Long hitters on City Park’s No. 13 often lay up to avoid finding that fairway bunker.
“Don has been a scratch golfer, a very good player,” Woodard said. “But I still couldn’t believe anybody would get a hole-in-one on that hole.”
A ceremony to salute Papin, a retired postal worker, is scheduled for 9:30 a.m. May 14 at City Park Golf Course.
Tom Kensler: tkensler@denverpost.com or
