The odds of posting a hole-in-one is 12,500-to-1, according to the National Hole-in-One Registry.
But a double eagle or albatross — terms used to describe shooting three-under par on one hole — carries 1 million-to-1 odds, according to Dean Knuth, a contributing editor for Golf Digest and former senior director of the handicap department at the United States Golf Association.
Josh Demaso achieved the rare feat on July 19, when the 22-year-old from Brewer recorded an albatross with a pitching wedge at the 400-yard, par-five fourth hole at the Rocky Knoll Country Club in Orrington.
It was his first albatross.
“The wind was pretty strong, about 15 to 20 mph,” Demaso said. “I didn’t hit a perfect drive but, with the wind, it was good enough to get up there. I had 140 yards to the pin.”
Demaso said he would normally use an eight-iron, but with the wind aiding him, he took out his pitching wedge.
“It landed barely on the front of the green, bounced once, kept rolling and disappeared,” he said.
Demaso didn’t think it went in, but one of his playing partners, Bangor’s Roger Tracy, told him it had.
“I was very shocked, actually,” he said.
He called it “one of the top moments of my golf career and of my life.”
Orrington’s Chris Murphy also witnessed it.
Demaso began playing golf when he was 10 and was on the Brewer High School golf team for four years before graduating in 2018.
He works at Rocky Knoll, changing the pins and raking out the bunkers.
“I play almost every day after work. I love the game that much,” Demaso said.
He wound up shooting 37 on the front nine and 45 on the back nine for a 10-over-par 82. The best he’s ever shot at Rocky Knoll is a 74.
Demaso said he knows of two other golfers who have also recorded an albatross at Rocky Knoll years ago and both also did it on the fourth hole: Gary Chessa and Stephen Newcomb.
Now he can set his sights on his first hole-in-one.
The rarest of golf shots is a condor, which is a hole-in-one on a par five or a two at a par six.
As of January, only six had ever been recorded and all were at a par-five.