Local nails hole-in-one at Tierra Del Sol Golf Club

RIO COMMUNITIES — There was no roar from the crowd, no cry of “It’s in the hole,” like Bill Murray’s character Carl Spackler shouted in “Caddyshack.”

It may have been a bit anticlimactic, but it was still a thrill of a lifetime for Rio Communities’ resident Eric Anaya.

On Saturday, June 1, while playing with his wife, Naomi, at Tierra Del Sol Golf Club in Rio Communities, Anaya smacked his eight iron off the tee on the par 3, 160-yard seventh hole. Anaya, 52, felt he struck it well, but because of the contour of the green, they were unable to see the ball land.

“I thought I hit it a little deep and the ball went off the backside,” recalled Anaya, who is a long-time member of the club. “The flag was in the back, back corner,” of the green. “So, when we went up there, I drove around, and I didn’t see (the ball) on the backside of the green anywhere.”

That’s when the excitement started to build.

“I said, ‘Oh man, could it be in the hole?’ I told my wife, ‘Would you please look in the hole?’”

Her reaction, “Oh my gosh,” let Anaya know he had just recorded an ace, his first ever hole-in-one.

“I was so excited. I had the chills —goosebumps,” Anaya recalled. “I was overwhelmed. I could not believe it. I couldn’t finish the round.”

Couldn’t finish the round? After hitting their next shots on No. 8, the couple called it a day.

“I was still too shook up, too excited,” he said.

Anaya went home, called a few buddies and promised to fulfill a golf tradition by buying drinks at the course later. Eric and Naomi did celebrate that night with a trip to the casino, an unsuccessful attempt to continue his lucky streak.

Anaya, who carries a 9.7 handicap, said he approached the seventh hole that Saturday not really brimming with confidence because the green features several water hazards on the front edge.

“I was concerned about losing my good ball,” Anaya said. “ So, I got out a not-so-good one. Of course, that’s the one that went in.”

For now, Anaya carries the “not so good” ball with him, but eventually Naomi will have it turned into some sort of trophy, a keepsake.

After all, Anaya says, “It’s one in a million.”