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Hole in One Study: What the Numbers Say

Do you love playing golf in California? We’ve got some good news for you…

At The Left Rough we love everything about golf, whether it be making your first birdie, learning to hit a driver straight every time, or buying a new set of Big Berthas, we want to help people in every aspect of their game – so we know as well as anyone how special it is to get a hole-in-one. 

The hole-in-one is the most iconic achievement in golf, especially when it’s often a once in a lifetime shot for many golfers. However, there are a few people who have made the hole-in-one their speciality, and you’d be surprised just how many ‘aces’ there have been in America since the turn of the millennium.

So, to look deeper into golf’s golden shot, we decided to do some research into just how many of you out there have scored a hole-in-one – here’s what we found.

For this research, we looked at nearly 30,000 hole-in-ones scored since 1999 in the United States, to reveal which American states are best for scoring hole-in-ones.

Where are the Most Hole in Ones Occuring?

We discovered that golfers who play in California are the most likely to get a hole-in-one, followed by in Florida and Michigan. Since 1999, those in California have hit 2,515 aces, whilst in Florida and Michigan golfers have scored 2,199 and 1,351, respectively.

The ten states most likely to get a hole-in-one, and the number each state has recorded since 1999, are as follows:

  1. California – 2,515
  2. Florida – 2,199
  3. Michigan – 1,351
  4. Texas – 1,150
  5. New York – 1,093
  6. Ohio – 1,059
  7.  Illinois – 1,051
  8.  Pennsylvania – 991
  9.  North Carolina – 887
  10.  Arizona – 879

The data also showed that the Californian course that golfers are most likely to score a hole-in-one is the Diablo Creek Golf Course, followed by Brookside Country Club and Roddy Ranch. 

The Most Common Club Used for a Hole in One

When looking at which club people had used to score their hole-in-one, the 7 Iron was revealed as the most commonly used club, with 2,938 hole-in-ones. An 8 Iron and a 6 Iron rounded off the top three, with 2,819 and 2,350 hole-in-ones, respectively.

The 9 Iron came in fourth place with 2,229 hole-in-ones, while the Pitching Wedge came fifth, with 1,958. 

We also delved into which hole people had been scoring hole-in-ones, and discovered that the eighth hole was the most common, with 2,701 aces. The third (2,422) and seventh (2,180) holes came second and third, while the fourth (2,146) and seventeenth (2,082) finished off the top five. 

Charlie Parsons, founder of TheLeftRough, said,

“As any golfer will know, hitting a hole-in-one is a once in a lifetime achievement – unless you’re Norman Manley, an amateur golfer with 59 hole-in-ones attributed to him, who interestingly was also from California.

“It’s interesting to see those in California hitting so many hole-in-ones – especially when it’s nearly 500 more than any other State – you have to wonder what training they’re doing out there on the west coast! We’re planning to make this research a recurring thing, so that we can track how hole-in-ones in the US are changing – who knows, maybe Florida will surpass California this time next year.”