Pecot gets second career hole in one

Slidell resident Jack Pecot picked a good time to get his second career hole-in-one.

While playing in a match-play tournament on Aug. 22, Pecot collected an ace on the seventh hole from 135 yards out, using an 8-iron. The hole-in-one helped him and his teammate Clint Schwaner win the first round of the competition by one hole.

The event features 12 teams. The best score for each hole was the one used to determine the result. Due to Hurricane Gustav, no timetable has been set up for the continuation of the event. Pecot, 62, who has been playing golf for 18 years, talked about his shot.

“I hit the ball pretty good,” Pecot said. “It went nice and high, a little draw, which is good favor for a shot that you want to hit. The guys in our group all said, ‘man, that is going to be really really close.’”

Pecot, who said his career best round was a 69 at Royal Golf Club, said he didn’t see the ball go in.

“It bounced up, and unfortunately, the way the pin was situated up front, they had a little ridge in front of the pin and you couldn’t see the bottom of the hole,” he said. “We knew we saw it hit, and we didn’t see it roll beyond the pin. The rest of the group wound up shooting, and we get up to the green, walk up to the hole and didn’t see a ball around the hole and knew it obviously had to be in the hole. We walked to the pin and the ball is sitting at the bottom of the cup.”

Pecot ended up with a five over par 77 for the round. His first hole-in-one came on Nov. 21, 1998, at the Royal’s second hole.

Pecot said his latest ace was better.

“You could see it was tracking right there to the hole,” Pecot said. “We knew it was close. It was right there.”

His hole-in-one was witnessed by Schwaner, Larry Abney and Sid Hebert. Last month, Hebert recorded an ace on the seventh hole at the Bridges Golf Club on the grounds of Hollywood Casino in Bay St. Louis, Miss.

Hebert talked about what he saw.

“It was a great shot,” Hebert said. “It took a bounce, and we only saw one ball on the green from Clint Schwaner, so we thought it was in the hole. It was exciting because we were in the throws of a good match. That put a whole new perspective on our match.”