Chattanooga-area golfer Don Potter, age 73, has 15 holes-in-one – so far

Don Potter is one of the luckiest golfers in the greater Chattanooga area, and perhaps all of the Southeast.

 

If he had a ring for every hole-in-one he's scored, both hands – thumbs included – and all the toes on one of his feet would be needed to wear the jewelry.

 

Potter, 73, has recorded 15 aces in his life.

 

"You have to be lucky," Potter said. "First you have to hit a good shot. Then luck takes over."

 

Some have been recorded on the course where he learned the game – but only after he returned old enough to play the senior tees.

 

Some came where he spent most of his life. One, he claims, came without warm-ups or practice swings.

 

And he thinks he may be missing at least one, maybe two, that have slipped from his mind over time.

 

"I've been playing golf a long time," said Potter, who works at Brainerd Golf Course on the weekends. "You can never plan on them. They just happen with a good shot and good luck."

 

The National Hole-In-One Registry (which only records information provided to it) notes that the record for one golfer is 26 career aces. It says odds of a low-handicap golfer making an ace during a round are 5,000 to 1.

 

Potter has beat 5,000-to-1 now 15 times.

 

He can list them all, most in Virginia: three on No. 10 at Bow Creek, two on No. 2 at Bow Creek, two at Lake Wright, one at Stumpy Lake and seven at Brainerd since he returned to Chattanooga in 2004.

 

He aced Brainerd's No. 17 three times in a span of 90 days. He's made two on No. 2 and aced No. 6 on April Fool's day.

 

"I still haven't aced No. 14 yet," he joked. "That should be the easiest one."

 

None of them came before he turned 30.

 

Potter grew up minutes from Brainerd Golf Course and caddied for some of the best golfers in town at the time, including Ira Templeton.

 

Potter, who still has a newspaper clipping of him just before the City Prep Championship, graduated from Central in 1959.

 

He joined the Navy, spent 10 years in the service and chose to remain in the greater Norfolk area. There he won tournaments equivalent to events in Chattanooga like the Signal Mountain Invitational and Chattanooga Men's Metro. He even competed in the Virginia state amateur against Curtis Strange before Strange turned professional.

 

Potter remained an amateur. He went into private business, including furniture and auto sales, before returning to his roots at Brainerd. Then he began another streak of luck on the course -- seven in the last eleven years.

 

"I've seen a thousand of them come up so close," he said.

 

He's also seen 15 of his tee shots drop in for a one.

 

This article was written by David Uchiyama from Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn. and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network.