I was standing on the tee box of number 11 at the Escondido Country Club. Those that played this course will tell you that, at 202 yards with a blue pin placement, it is a fairly daunting Par 3. In any case, I was feeling pretty confident and was striking the ball well on that Saturday so I selected my 5 iron, set down my Titelest NXT, addressed the ball, and let it rip. It came off like a rocket - soaring down the right side of the hole landing pin high and checking up quickly, but landing softly on the green and then slowly (as if it were putt) leaking left towards the cup. My friend Rob said, "Go in the hole!"

The next thing I know the ball just disappeared. We gave a quick look from the tee box but didn't see it. I didn't want to get too excited only to find that my ball was resting on the back edge of the cup and was being concealed by the pin, so after a short debate we decided that we would just wait and see. It took Rob five strokes to reach the green and with every chunked shot I grew more restless, but when I walked on the and didn't see my ball, I smiled - which only turned into excessive celebration when I looked in the cup and confirmed that I had, in fact, scored an ace.

It was my first...hopfully it won't take another 18 years to get another "one."