Norris Long chased his first hole-in-one across golf courses for decades before he aced No. 5 at Belle Meade Country Club on Dec. 21.
He said he lifted the ball with a 6 iron while playing in a senior league.
"I had a good shot, and I thought maybe I had a bird on that one," he said.
Instead, the ball tumbled into the cup on the 130-yard hole.
"I'm pretty sure it was a Titleist ball," the 78-year-old golfer said. He did not keep the ball as a souvenir.
Jim McLaughlin was among the witnesses to the hole-in-one.
Mr. Long, a longtime coach, teacher, elementary principal and assistant superintendent in Columbia County, is retired and lives in Thomson. He is treasurer of the local Habitat for Humanity and is active in First United Methodist Church.
The clubhouse made special mention of Mr. Long's first hole-in-one.
"We normally put it in the bulletin, but we don't normally put the sign up like we did for him," said course pro Clark Willingham. "But we hadn't had one in a while."
