Standing on the tee at the 180-yard, par-3 13th hole during the second round of the BMW Ladies Championship on Friday, all Kristen Gillman wanted to do was hit a high shot into the wind and let the ball land softly on the green.
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(Yonhap) |
It didn't just drop on the green. The ball went into the hole for the American's golfer's first ace ever.
And with that hole-in-one, the 22-year-old American LPGA golfer also won a luxury, BMW 7 Series sedan.
"I was in between my 5- and 4-hybrid, and I was like, 'I'm just going to hit my 4-hybrid high into the wind and let it sit easy,"
Gillman told Yonhap News Agency after her round of one-under 71 at LPGA International Busan in Busan, 450 kilometers southeast of Seoul.
"I hit it and the wind took it. A couple of seconds later, the crowd behind started cheering. We couldn't see the ball. I didn't want to get too excited because I've never had a hole-in-one before. I've holed out a lot of shots on par-4s and par-5s but never on a par-3."
BMW vehicles are handed out to players who get hole-in-ones this week, but Gillman said she didn't even look at he car set up behind the tee at the 13th because she wasn't even sure she'd made one.
"My caddie told me, 'It's the nicest one. That's the one you want,'" Gillman said with a smile. "I came close (to making a hole-in-one) a lot of times this year. If you keep talking about hole in one, you're going to eventually get one. I finally got one."
The ace was a microcosm of a roller coaster of a round for Gillman. She birdied the fourth hole but had a triple bogey at the eighth hole. She had a bogey at the 12th before that hole-in-one at the 13th. She closed out with consecutive birdies at the 16th and 17th.
"I am just going to go out there and try to keep doing what I am doing," Gillman said of her game plan for the next two rounds.
"Hit good shots and then putts will fall. That's all you can do out here."
(Yonhap)
