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BY RANDY FITZGERALD
PHOTO SOURCE
I've been thinking a lot lately about perfection: perfect games in baseball, 300 games in bowling, all holes in one in a round of Putt-Putt. Putt-Putt? Do they keep records about Putt-Putt? You bet they do. Putt-Putt golf has sponsored professional and amateur tours for 57 years, and thousands and thousands of players have played millions of rounds. In all that time only three players have aced all 18 holes in one round. The most recent came right here at the Richmond Putt-Putt course on Midlothian Turnpike on April 9 during a state tournament. PPA pro Rick Baird of Charlotte, N.C., who will play anywhere anytime there is a Putt-Putt tournament, did it. Baird, 53, and winner of the 2007 national PPA National championship, estimates he's played “a million rounds” over the 40 years he's competed. This time his one-in-a million shot came home. Every time he stepped to the tee mat, his ball found the bottom of the cup.
The closest he ever came to the dream every Putt-Putt player has was making the first 13 in a round l (an incredible feat in itself). After he made the first 13 in Richmond, he teed off on no. 14, which is guarded by a block shielding most of the path to the hole. Most players, Baird included, roll the ball up the hill, off the far rail and back into the hole. To Baird's horror, he hit the ball a little easier than he intended and it narrowly missed the block and went straight into the cup. Although it was a legitimate shot, he knew he had been a tad lucky. He also knew that he now had a shot at history. He made 15 and 16. No. 17 has a wicked little triangle you have to roll the ball off of and make it bounce (often unpredictably) up a hill and off two rails into the cup. Baird was confident, though, because he had made it in the previous round (as he had No. 18). When that ball went in, all the other competitors stopped their own rounds and scrambled over to No. 18. Baird backed off his putt to let the crowd settle. “I thought you did that to settle your nerves,” I told him. “There was no chance of that,” he laughed.
So, nerves sort of settled, he took his two practice swings and launched the putt that made history. His ace was videotaped for posterity and can be seen on YouTube.
Which is better, winning a national championship or shooting an 18? He's not sure but he knows that “someone will win the national championship every year. Only three people have ever shot an 18.”
Randy Fitzgerald teaches modern American literature at Virginia Union University. He was a longtime public relations director at the University of Richmond and columnist for the Richmond Times-Dispatch. Contact him at
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