Santa Rosa golfer is a hole-in-one master

A hole in one is usually a once-in-a-lifetime accomplishment. But for Santa Rosa golfer Elliot Funk, it’s almost becoming a habit.

Funk, 68, has hit six aces - including all four par-3 holes at Bennett Valley Golf Course.

On Tuesday, Funk reached the half-dozen mark while golfing with friends Jim Filardo and Bill Habkirk, using a 9-iron to hole his tee shot on the 118-yard 15th hole.

“Some days you get lucky,” he said.

Funk, a CPA who retired after three decades at Hewlett-Packard and Agilent Technologies, started golfing at the age of 12.

“It’s been my passion,” he said. “It was like taking a drug. When I was 12, it was all I wanted to do.”

His holes in one have come in two states, one when he was in his 30s in his native Utah and the rest in Santa Rosa, including the?par-4 second hole at Oakmont Golf Club’s East Course the day after he turned 50.

The other four include every par-3 hole at Bennett Valley - hole Nos. 6, 8, 11 and 15.

“It really is unheard of to ace every par-3 on a particular golf course,” said Jim Knego, the PGA head golf pro at Bennett Valley, who described Funk as “pretty jacked up” when he came into the pro shop after the perfect shot.

Knego said there are about 20 or so aces each year at the course, but rarely - if ever - hit by the same person, except Funk.

“There’s a lot of luck involved, but Elliot is a very competent player,” Knego said.

Funk, whose handicap is about 7, Knego said, plays a lot of golf. Last year, he finished 173 rounds.

He has accomplished several “bucket list” goals in his favored sport.

“I’ve always wanted to shoot my age, which I know is kind of unusual,” he said. He has done that twice now, last year at 67 and this year.

His second ace came at a time he needed a little uplifting: “It was the day after I turned 50. I was so totally bummed and depressed about turning 50.”

With the ace on the par-4 hole at Oakmont East, it was an even rarer double-eagle, also known as an albatross.

Funk, who enjoys the exercise to help keep his diabetes under control and to keep the kinks out of his rebuilt hip, said he wants to keep shooting his age every year and to score another ace on Bennett Valley’s 11th hole, since it has been reconfigured since his first.

For less accomplished sharp-shooters enjoying the links, Funk said his best advice is to keep the passion for the game alive.

“You never master it. The older you get, your body changes,” he said. “This is a game you can play until you go to your grave. But you have to keep at it.”

You can reach Lori A. Carter at 521-5470 or lori.carter@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @loriacarter.