More than 500 million rounds of golf are played in the United States every year. Counting all par 3s, 4s, and 5s together, that’s nine billion tee shots. Roughly 142 thousand of those turn into holes-in-one.

That’s a lot of once-in-a-lifetime shots.

The hole-in-one is at once the most elusive of sports accomplishments and the most achievable. They are available to anyone, not just the best in the business. You can take my word for it . . . I’ve never broken 100 on a golf course, but I have a hole-in-one to my credit.

Not only that, I have the story that goes with it.

Millions of us do. Way more people than you’d expect are walking around with hole-in-one stories, each with its singular set of circumstance and context. No two holes-in-one are alike, neither are the stories. Especially mine.

I may not be even an average golfer. But I have the best hole-in-one story you may ever hear.