After 35 years of playing golf, I finally made my first hole-in-one.

What made it even more special was that my whole family was there with me: my wife, my son, and my son’s girlfriend. I taught my son to play, and golf has become one of our favorite pastimes together. He is now a very good golfer and has been teaching his girlfriend, who was only playing for the third time. My wife has also been playing for a couple of years, so having all of them there to share the moment made it unforgettable.

I had recently taken my first golf lesson and had already started seeing real improvement in my iron play. One of the biggest things from that lesson was focusing on my pre-shot routine and then simply executing the shot.

Over the years, I’ve had several eagles on par fours, so I’ve had some “hole-in-one-like” moments, but never an actual ace. My son and I have a running thing whenever we step up to a par three and see a good shot in the air: we’ll say, “This could be the day.” Honestly, almost every time I’ve approached a par three over the years, I’ve wondered, “Is this going to be the day?”

But what was amazing about this shot was that, for once, I didn’t have any extra thoughts in my head. I just went through my pre-shot routine, focused on making a good swing, and executed. I hit a pure 7-iron with a nice little draw.

As the ball was in the air, my son started saying, “This could be the day! This could be the day!” We watched it track toward the hole, but we didn’t actually see it go in. It just kept moving toward the flag like it had a chance.

When we got up to the green, there it was in the hole.

After 35 years, it finally was the day — and I couldn’t have asked for a better group of people to share it with.