Golf’s Ultimate Prize: A Hole In One-

 Enjoying the moments right after my first hole-in-one.  Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

Finally making the shot of a lifetime

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

It happened on the number nine hole at St. Stanislaus Golf Course in Modesto in early October.

Using my nine iron, the swing was smooth, the ball sailed high and landed softly about six feet in front of the cup. At that point, the ball rolled to destiny.

It was an eight-seven yard finish to a thirty-five year journey. After calling my wife, I headed into the clubhouse. Golf tradition dictates that the golfer who makes a hole-in-one buys drinks for everyone at the clubhouse.

In my case, it was nine o’clock in the morning, and only Charlie, the manager on duty was there.

After telling him what happened, Charlie congratulated me and offered a free cup of coffee.

We talked for several minutes and he shared with me stories about the two times he got a hole-in-one.

One of those times was right there on the St. Stanislaus course. I thanked him, and headed home.

A flag-down view of the hole-in-one ball in the cup. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

Later in the day, my wife and I celebrated with dessert at a local coffee house. She’s been sort of a golf widow in the months since my retirement when my golf outings intensified.

I’ve been sharing my accomplishment with friends on social media, at the coffee shop, and with golfers in casual conversations.

They have offered their congratulations. Some have been telling me of their attempts at golf’s greatest accomplishment.

My former golf buddie Mike, living in the east coast, told me that in his fifty-two years of playing the game, he has yet to land that special shot.

A non-golfer relative took a stab at our advancing years with the comment “With age comes perfection!” She added six exclamation points.

A friend from high school suggested I should buy a lottery ticket in hopes my lucky streak continues.

I did not buy a ticket.

Another friend challenged me with a gentle hope that I might get a few more before retiring from the sport.

It took thirty-five years to get this first one; I doubt there will be a second.

My wife’s cousin shared that her deceased dad would be proud. I saw her dad swing a golf club, and I knew he was a gifted golfer. She’s right.

Bob would be proud.

Another cousin of my wife said he got a hole-in-one while stationed at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba in the military a few decades ago.

He said it was a complete fluke as he had only played that one time in his whole life.

One last look at the hole where it happened. The mark on the green where the ball landed before rolling into the cup was repaired by me shortly after this shot was taken. Photo: Newvine Personal Collection

In a golf league one summer, I was a witness to that special golf moment.

It was nearly twenty years ago when our friend Les made a hole-in-one. It was an amazing thing to witness. It was like going through a ritual. Seeing what appeared to be the ball falling in from about one-hundred yards away, driving our golf cart up to the green, walking up to the cup, and seeing the ball sitting at the bottom.

I reached out to Les in the days following my lucky shot. We’re still lost in voicemail and old email addresses, but sometime soon I hope we can share that common bond that ties golfers together.

The hole-in-one club has accepted me, and now I’m a lifetime member.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

In 2019, he wrote Course Corrections.

The book includes stories of his adventures playing the game, some fiction related to golf, and reflections on how a great day at the course feels.

It’s available at Amazon and at BarnesAndNoble.com

Sorting, Scanning, and Learning-

Photo Archive Acquisition Project Underway at the Merced Courthouse Museum

Piles of photographs acquired by the Merced County Courthouse Museum from the Merced Sun Star newspaper. Photo: Steve Newvine

Tom Gaffrey is on a mission to preserve history.

Tom, who retired from the Merced County Public Works department several years ago, spends a good part of his free time as a docent at the County Historical Society.

His current project is sorting through thousands of photographs acquired from the Merced Sun Star.

Merced County Courthouse Museum docent Tom Gaffrey works on the multi-year project to categorize, digitize, and electronically store more than ten thousand pictures acquired from the Merced Sun-Star. Photo: Steve Newvine

When the paper sold their former G street building and moved to a much smaller office location, a lot of things had to go.

There was simply no space to store boxes and boxes of hard copy photographs.

“We’ve acquired items from the Sun Star in the past,” says Museum Executive Director Sarah Lim. “This was another opportunity for the Museum to preserve local history.”

The photographs arrived with very little information about the subjects depicted.

“We’d get a batch with the year written on the box or envelope.” Tom said.

Bound volumes of Merced Sun Star newspapers, are stored at the Merced County Courthouse Museum.  The books are being used now to provide more information about the photographs acquired by the Museum.  Photo:  Steve Newvine

According to Sarah Lim, museum volunteers went to the Sun-Star office and picked up an estimated ten-thousand photographs.

“They were in envelopes, folders, and boxes,” Sarah said.

The process is extensive with historical archiving protocols to preserve and protect the photographs.

“The first two steps (cleaning and organizing) were completed last year,” Sarah said. “Now, we are in the next major step of researching and accessioning hundreds and thousands of photos and negatives.”

Accessioning refers to the recording of the addition of a new item to the museum collection.

The photos cover a span from the late 1960s to the 1990s.

One of over ten-thousand photographs acquired by the Merced County Courthouse Museum. This photo is from December 1976.

As a volunteer, Tom adheres to a process set up to handle the photographs.

“We take a batch, sort them out by month, and then examine each photo. In most cases, we examine the actual hard copy of the Sun Star from that month and match up the photo to the story in the paper.”

From there, Tom notes the actual date, captures the printed news story associated with the photo, and then sends it on to the Museum Registrar who records the item into the Museum data base.

Museum Registrar Donna Lee Hartman records each photo from the Sun Star acquisition along with related information into the Museum’s computer. The process is referred to as accessioning. Photo: Steve Newvine

“Sometimes, it feels like the old game show Concentration,”Tom says.

“Matching up a small bit of information from the photo to the actual published information about the story from that time.”

On Concentration, contestants would match pieces of a puzzle and then try to solve the rebus behind the pieces.

In this museum project, Tom is matching photographs from as far back as the 1960s to find the news story that relates to the image.

Tom has been working on the project along with other docents and museum staff for about three years.

He expects it will take a couple more years before the entire acquisition of photos is archived.

Merced Sun Star front page. Museum Docent Tom Gaffrey refers to old issues of the Merced Sun Star for background information as he matches up photos from the acquisition. This particular issue is from December 1970. Richard Nixon was President, and Ronald Reagan was governor.

Museum Executive Director Sarah Lim says this will be a long term project.

“We accessioned eight-hundred photos into the archive for the year 1976.”

There’s another twenty years of images to work on, so she expects this mostly volunteer effort to take a while.

She adds, “It is an ongoing project.”

When completed, historians and other interested people will be able to come into the Museum and access the photographs.

For Tom, he plans on sticking around to see this project all the way to the end.

“Being a third generation Merced County resident,” he says. “I have a real attachment to the area.”

For Tom, it is a mission to preserve local history.

Steve Newvine lives in Merced.

The next exhibit at the Merced County Courthouse Museum is the colonies in Merced County and opens in early October.

Steve is writing a novel about the construction of the nation’s largest state government office complex and how it impacted a family of carpenters who had to travel a great distance to work on the project.

It will be available in late November.

His latest book Can Do Californians is available at Lulu.com and at BarnesAndNoble.com