An ace on the tee box

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Misty Watson/The Daily Citizen Bob Campbell poses on the tee box at Nob North Golf Course’s eighth hole, a par-3 that was the site of Campbell’s first hole-in-one in 1983. Over the last three decades, Campbell, 78, has recorded five more holes-in-one. His latest came in May in LaFayette. The founder of Campbell Printing has gotten his aces at courses across the Southeast.

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July 5, 2012

An ace on the tee box

Campbell beats the odds for six holes-in-one

By Chris Whitfield chriswhitfield@daltoncitizen.com The Dalton Daily Citizen Thu Jul 05, 2012, 11:14 PM EDT

Cohutta resident Bob Campbell says there isn’t a real big secret to hitting a hole-in-one. He should have a pretty good idea of what it takes.

“I’ve always told everyone to have the right club in your hand, hit it on line, then the rest of it is luck,” said Campbell, 79, who recorded his sixth hole-in-one on May 11 at LaFayette Golf Course. “I have had four pretty good shots. The others were bad and I just got lucky.”

The founder of Campbell Printing, Campbell had lived in Illinois for years and didn’t regularly play the game due to the seasons in the upper Midwest.

“I was a bowler when I was up in Illinois,” he said. “You couldn’t play much golf because we had four seasons in Illinois — June, July, August and winter. When I came back down here to more golfing weather, I started playing a lot more golf.”

Campbell’s first hole-in-one came in 1983 on No. 8 at Nob North. It took more than 16 years for him to get his second ace on a par-3 course in Ringgold, but then the hits just kept on coming. In 2001, he hit a 5 iron from 215 yards on the par-3, No. 8 at The Farm. That one dropped and three months later he had an ace at Mt. Airy (N.C.) Golf Club. Then, in 2003, he stuck a pitching wedge on the fifth hole at Nob North, and then came this year’s ace in LaFayette.

According to US Hole In One, a company that provides hole-in-one insurance for tournament outings, the odds of making a hole-in-one is roughly 12,500 to 1. So six in the last 29 years is a pretty impressive percentage.

In addition to his holes-in-one, he also has an even rarer golfing feat — an albatross, or a two on a par 5. He recorded his albatross on the par-5, 12th hole at Indian Trace in Chatsworth. But it is his first hole-in-one that sticks out to him, and he says it was ugly with a capital “U.”

“I hit a shot that was the right distance, but it wasn’t anywhere close to the hole,” he said. “It hit one of the mounds off to the side, took a hop and rolled straight over to the pin. Now, that one was ugly.”

Campbell celebrated his 78th birthday in February, and while his hands may not be as steady as they used to be, he doesn’t see himself leaving the golf course anytime soon. His game is still strong, and he still loves the camaraderie of his regular playing partners Clifford McCurdy, 76, brother Jake, 68, and the “O’Bryant boys” of Donald, 82, and Oscar, 75.

“I haven’t lost a whole lot of distance, and I still love the game,” he said. “I still love to go out and play. I am going to play the game as long as I am able, but I don’t believe in a whole lot of practice. I don’t go to the range or go to the green to practice. You might hit a good one on the range, and I need them on the course.”

Campbell started his company on Cleveland Highway in 1977, and now, he has turned the business over to the next generation.

“I’ve got three wonderful children who run it while the old man plays golf,” he laughed.

His sons — Tim, who caught the golf bug from his father and is a 2 handicapper, and Mike, the hunter and fisher of the pair — along with daughter Karen Harris now run the family business. Golf is dad’s full-time pursuit

“I love the competition, and you can go and play the game all of your life,” he said. “Chipper Jones is 40 and he is retiring from baseball and will never play the game again after this year. At 40, I was just getting started with golf, and it is a game that you can play from the time you can putt as an infant until they take you home.”

But until home comes calling, it is a good bet that Campbell is going to continue to put it in the short grass and continue tracking in on pins. Besides, he has some goals left on his home course at Nob North. He’s conquered the pair of par 3s on the front and is focused on the back.

“I can’t wait to get hole No. 12 and No. 17,” he said. “I hope I can get them, too.”

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An ace on the tee box

Campbell beats the odds for six holes-in-one

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