The Annual Mayfield Alumni & Mayfield Football Golf Outing was held on June 18th at the StoneWater Golf Course in Highland Heights, OH, and was full of familiar faces from the community. Benefiting the Mayfield High School Football team, the tournament helps raise money each year for a new pavilion and the remodeling of team areas.
Alan Gunner, 48, is not a Mayfield Alumni. His wife and brothers-in-law are, however. “I’ve been invited to play the tournament before, but I always had conflicting events. This year I was happy to help support their Alma Mater.”
Alan is no stranger to witnessing great moments in golf. The weekend before he had played in his own golf tournament and was surprised with a gift of tickets to the US Open so he was able to walk the course in Oakmont, PA. “That was just an amazing thing for me. I was walking around and thinking, check this off my bucket list!”
When asked about his winning shot, Alan paused and laughed, “I’ve told this story so many times and it still doesn’t seem real.” But he indulged our curiosity anyways. “I play the course a few times a year, I’m actually playing there this afternoon. I’m by no means a great golfer, but for some reason I was the anchor for our scramble. We came up to one of the hardest holes and I had watched all my buddies hit straight into the water, just short of the green. The sun was coming down right behind the hole, so I hit the ball best I could and saw it go over the water and then I lost it in the shadows. I thought for sure it flew over the green.”
Alan had no idea what had really happened until he got closer to search for his ‘lost’ ball, and someone approached him. “This lady drives over and walks up on the green, and I asked her, ‘Did you see my ball go over the green?’, and she just stood there looking at me, then she walked over to the pin and said, ‘No, but there’s one in the hole!’ I didn’t believe her, she had to coax me over with her finger like I was a little kid, I just couldn’t believe her.”
“When I saw it I yelled ‘It’s beautiful!’, threw my hat up, and gave her a big hug. I don’t think she understood the difficulty of the shot at all. She just said, ‘Isn’t the ball supposed to go in the hole? Isn’t that the point?’ We were all just hootin’ and hollerin’ and having so much fun jumping around and celebrating. I took a picture of the ball in the hole and posted it on Facebook with a picture of the Ford F-150, too.”
Nick Mayer Ford Lincoln sponsored the tournament this year and was just as happy as Alan with the hole in one win. “Alan is an awesome guy, and winning $25,000 towards a car made it that much cooler.” J. Ryder Group and the Ford Hole in One Program made sure my first winner was well taken care of”, said Dave Massucci, Commercial Sales Manager at Nick Mayer Ford Lincoln. “Everything worked out great. They had such attention to detail and took great care with the claim. Everyone was extremely kind and helpful and I could always make a quick call to get an immediate update. I really couldn’t have asked for a better hole in one experience. I’ll definitely continue working with them in the future, especially now that I know that winners really do happen!”
Still giddy from his hole in one, Alan’s lucky week was far from over. “The next day was the Cleveland Cavaliers Game 7 in the NBA Finals against the Golden State Warriors, and I made a joke that with my newfound luck, the Cavs would win! All my friends told me I was jinxing the game, and if you know anything about Cleveland then you know we were really hurting for this win. Anyways, that night they beat the Warriors by 4 points. I always tell people that it was my luck that did it for them, I take all the credit”, Alan laughed.
“That was the luckiest week of my life. I checked three things off my bucket list: the US Open, my first ever hole in one, and witnessing the Cavs finally win the NBA Finals.”
They say good things come in threes, Alan! On behalf of the entire team at J. Ryder Group / Ford Hole in One Program and Nick Mayer Ford Lincoln, congratulations! We’re all very happy we could be a part of your lucky week!
