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There’s one-upmanship. Then there’s one-hole-upmanship.

After Dr. Greg Scott got a hole-in-one on the par-3, 182-yard fourth hole at St. Catharines Golf & Country Club, the longest of longshots happened.

“The next fellow in our foursome to hit, Dave Merritt, decided to put his ball on top of mine in the hole,” recalled Scott, a St. Catharines diagnostic radiologist who witnessed the remarkable feat along with fellow club member Dr. Alan Loon and guest David Brennan.

“It was a wild 60 seconds. According to the PGA of America, the chances of these back-to-back holes-in-one in the same foursome on the same hole is 17 million to one.”

Scott, 70, who has been golfing since he was a teenager, didn’t see his first ace at St. Catharines and his fourth overall going into the hole. He turned around and was putting the 6-iron back in the bag after the shot hit the green.

“I never saw it go in the hole and didn’t realize what had happened until I saw the response of the other three in the foursome,” recalled Scott, a member of the par-72 course since 1981.

“I was basically numb with disbelief.”

Scott remembered being 2-over par coming into the fourth hole.

“It is a good golf hole. Leaving it short usually means you are in the bunker short of the green or you’re on an up-slope short of the green,” he said. “The trick to playing the hole is take enough club to avoid the trouble short of the green.”

Taking wind “that is often in your face” into account can be a factor, as is a large tree that is short and right of the green.

“I would say that I par the fourth hole 50 per cent of the time, but even getting a birdie is a rare event.”

It took Merritt, 42, of St. Catharines some time to realize he had just hit his first hole-in-one after playing golf for nearly two decades.

“The angle of the green and pin position made it hard to be 100 per cent certain they had gone in. The green slopes to the right and I have seen several times where angles and shadows have hidden balls on the green,” the director of commercial services at Meridian Credit Union said.

“While we were certain we saw them go in, we were in a bit of disbelief at what had happened and waited until walking up and confirming they were in before celebrating.”

Merritt remembered “still settling in” after the first three holes when he selected a 7-iron for his tee shot on No. 4.

“I generally come up on short on that hill and land in the bunker but I didn’t alter my approach that day – just hit a proper iron shot for a change,” he said.

For the day, Scott, whose handicap is 15 strokes, and Merritt, a 13 handicap, carded rounds of 83 and 81, respectively. After their aces, they both bogeyed the next now and each finished the round with a lower score than usual.

Celebrations took place over lunch on the patio where they enjoyed Hole-in-Punch, a tradition at the club.

“It comes in a large vessel and is to be shared among everybody who is on the patio at the time,” Cook said of the fruit punch that also contains alcohol.

Neither took their roles in the one-for-the-books accomplishment as an omen to buy lottery tickets on the way home from the course.

“I haven’t bought a lottery ticket in years, so I didn’t want to break the string on that day,” Scott said.

“I figured I had used up my luck on the golf course that day,” Merritt said.

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