Meehan: Cousins come up aces one day apart

If you search the Internet long enough you can find odds for various hole-in-one scenarios.

Chances of an amateur making an ace: roughly 12,500 to 1. Chances of a pro making a hole-in-one: 2,500 to 1. Chances of a player making an ace on consecutive par 3s: 156,250,000 to 1.

Chances of two players in the same foursome carding a hole-in-one during the same round: 17 million to 1. Chances that one player will make a pair of aces in the same round: 67 million to 1.

Odds of cousins nailing aces on the same course one day apart? There’s probably a mathematical calculation somewhere in Googleville for such an occurrence, but Austin Nosworthy put it in more relatable terms.

“It’s pretty weird,” the Coeur d’Alene High freshman said.

Rewind to April 10, when Lakeland’s golf team was playing a practice round at the Highlands in Post Falls in preparation for a tournament the following day. It was senior Hayden Nosworthy’s first tour of the course, so his main objectives were jotting down yardages and becoming familiar with the layout.

He pulled out an 8-iron on the 155-yard 14th and sent his ball soaring toward the green.

“It was a center pin, the sun was in my eyes so I couldn’t really see it,” Nosworthy said. “But I saw that it was going right at the pin and my buddy Derek (Bayley) was right behind me and he thought it went in. Derek’s dad (Mike) was up by the green and he raised his hands like he was signaling a touchdown.

“I heard it hit the pin, but when Derek’s dad put his arms up I was so excited I threw my club in the air and my hands in the air.”

Nosworthy had come close to a hole-in-one before, but this time the ball disappeared. He shot an 80 that day, a fairly typical score for the Hawks’ No. 3 golfer.

“It was the first time I’ve ever seen a hole-in-one and I made it so it was pretty cool,” said Nosworthy, who has the ball set aside on his desk where he does homework.

Later that day, Hayden sent a text message to his cousin.

“He texted me and said he got a hole-in-one,” Austin recalled, “but I already found out because I saw a picture on Instagram.”

The next day it was Austin’s turn to pencil in a ‘1’ on his scorecard. It was his last chance to do so after 17 holes went by in what he called an otherwise ordinary round. His final hole was No. 6, a 105-yard hole with a ravine between the tee box and two-tiered green.

Austin, who plays on Coeur d’Alene’s JV, made clean contact with a pitching wedge.

“When it landed I saw it rolling and I thought it had a chance of going in,” he said. “The guys I was playing with all jumped in the air and were pretty excited. I was pretty much the same way.”

Austin’s first post-round move was obvious.

“I just walked up to Hayden – he had already found out – with a smile on my face and he was like, ‘Yeah, I know,’ ” said Austin, whose dad, Kelly, played football at Boise State and is co-owner of Nosworthy’s Hall of Fame restaurant in CdA with his father, Dale. “But I still don’t think he believed me at first.”

Austin said one byproduct of his hole-in-one is an added desire to improve his game.

“It makes me want to play more,” he said.

The cousins often tee it up together in the summer. Something tells me they’ll have a lot to reminisce about as they walk the fairways.

“Our families are pretty close,” Hayden said. “In the summer we play the Links, we play at Stoneridge because Grandpa has a membership out there and we also play at Avondale.”

They’ll be at the same tournament, at Twin Lakes Village, playing in different groups on Monday. Hmm, wonder what the odds are of cousins …