A typical Tuesday afternoon of golf came with a surprise for Carl Kottke.
Early in the month, Kottke hit his first hole-in-one at Stuart Place Golf Course.
Kottke plays with his league on Tuesdays, and it just happened that day would be a memorable one.
“It was luck for me,” he said, regardless of his skills.
Kottke is a Winter Texan from Minnesota who has been spending at least seven months of the year in Harlingen for almost a decade.
“We are going to go back in the middle of May,” he said.
Kottke is an 80-year-old who has been golfing since he was 65.
After his retirement, it became one of his usual activities to do for recreation and he has enjoyed it ever since, he said.
Kottke is supposed to get a trophy this week for his achievement, which has him and other golfers surprised.
“I feel pretty astonished; it was really something to see the ball bounce and go into the hole. It was like a 74-yard shot,” Kottke said.
“I was pretty excited and other guys around me, too, that I did it,” he said.
Kottke has been coming on and off to Harlingen since 2000 in a motorhome. But since 2009, he has been coming down steadily to stay and play golf.
“It is really friendly, and we have friends from Minnesota here,” he said.
“In Minnesota, I live near a lake, and I fish over there. I don’t do as much golf as I do here,” Kottke added.
He did not consider golf as his favorite sport, but it is one of his favorite activities.
Kottke said his son-in-law is an avid golfer and has yet to accomplish what he did a few weeks ago.
“He was envious because it had not happened to him,” he said laughing.
