The game's greatest thrill
By ROBERT TYCHKOWSKI -- Edmonton Sun
The average hole-in-one is worth a slap on the back, a souvenir ball, a lifelong golf story and a big bar tab.
But, occasionally, lightning strikes at exactly the right time and place.
Ask James Monsees. With Morgex Insurance paying out $10,000 for the first hole-in-one of the Edmonton Open last month, Monsees earned more money with one swing of an 8-iron than Jim Rutledge took home for winning the tournament.
Just like that.
And he's not alone. So far this summer, Morgex, which covers most of the par-3 action in Canada, has paid out 72 people for making a once-in-a-lifetime shot when it counted the most.
Some were beautifully struck balls destined for the cup the second they left the tee, others absolute miracles that had no business coming within 100 feet of the flagstick.
"We had one where the guy's shot was going straight into the bushes,'' said Shelly Fizer, manager of the hole-in-one department at Morgex. "Then it hit a tree, hit the flagstick and dropped in.''
Ten grand.
"On another one, a girl hit it into the sand, but it hit a rake that was lying in the trap, bounced straight up and into the cup.''
Ten grand.
WENT IN OFF ANOTHER BALL
"We had an ace where a girl's tee shot hit another girl's ball that was already on the green and deflected into the hole.''
Ten grand.
Fizer has heard 'em all. But she never asks how, just how many.
"It doesn't have to be pretty,'' she said. "It just has to go in the hole in one stroke.''
Morgex, an Edmonton-based company, got into the business of insuring holes-in-one when they opened their doors 16 years ago. What started out as an advertising gimmick has steamrollered into something they can barely keep up with.
"We get about 100 policy applications a day and about 6,000 in a year from all over Canada and the United States,'' said Fizer. "It's grown like crazy. We just got into it to get our name out there -- when you've got 144 people in a tournament, that's a pretty captive audience - but it's caught on like you wouldn't believe.
"We just got an application from Alabama, and we had one from Turkey. I didn't even know they played golf in Turkey until they called up and asked us to insure a hole-in-one.''
The procedure is simple: Apply for a policy, pay the premium ($165, although you get a 10 per cent discount if there are fewer than 100 players), put up your sign, get somebody to monitor the green and you've got your tournament a $10,000 hole-in-one prize.
"It's pretty straightforward,'' said Fizer, adding the minimum lengths are 150 yards for men, 135 for women and the hole must be monitored by someone over 16 and not playing in the tournament. "People think it's really complicated but it's not.''
So what are the odds of some girl banking one in off a rake?Insurance companies don't do anything without calculating the exact odds, and they've set the line at one ace in every 10,000 swings for amateurs (it's one in 6,000 for professionals, though that number varies between touring pros and club pros).
With a field of 144 players, it breaks down to about one ace in every 69 insured amateur tournaments. At $165 a policy, they take in $11,300 and pay out $10,000.
Those numbers can vary based on higher premiums for higher cash prizes, but the bottom line is that the profit margin isn't great.
"At the Gretzky and Friends tournament in Calgary we had a $20,000 hole-in-one on both days,'' said Fizer. "It takes a lot of $165 policies to make up $40,000.''
But it's great exposure and the golfing community, gamblers by nature, is in love with the concept.
"Edmonton and Alberta are huge (customers). Golf is big here and and we're very well known here.''
WEIR WAS AN EARLY WINNER
One of their early winners was Mike Weir, who scored an ace at Windermere while he played on the Canadian Tour. Morgex also paid out a $500,000 bonus to the Canadian Triple Crown winner.
Most of the stories have happy endings - like the guy who nailed his wife with a golf ball, then won a pair of expensive his and hers watches for a hole-in-one a few weeks later, but there is the occasional heartbreaker.
One sponsor didn't understand the rules and put their cash prize on a 120-yard hole. That ace didn't count.
Neither did the one where players on a scramble team took turns hitting two shots each because only three of the four players showed up.
When one of them aced his second tee shot, he thought he'd won the $10,000. It didn't count because he had two cracks at it.
"That happened earlier this year,'' said Fizer. "It has to be on your first shot.''
Other than that there are surprisingly few restrictions.
They don't have a guy on the scene waiting to void the cheque if you have too many clubs in the bag or are carrying a non-conforming driver.
"It just has to be one stroke from the tee box at least 150 yards away and in the hole,'' said Fizer.
"We're not looking to disqualify people. We wouldn't be in this business if we didn't pay these prizes out.''
