The Senators' winger didn't just get the first hole-in-one of his life; he got the rarest kind of hole-in-one.
Senators winger Claude Giroux just pulled off one of the rarest feats in all of sports. And remarkably, as one of the best NHL players of his generation, he didn't have skates on while he did it.
In the offseason, if Giroux isn't enjoying time with his family or training for the fall, you're most likely going to find him on the golf course. And he's a fine amateur player, a longtime ClubEG member who regularly shoots in the 70s. In 2024, he played as a sponsor's exemption in the Commissionaires Ottawa Open on the PGA Tour Americas.
While playing on Tuesday at the Marshes Golf Club, Giroux celebrated a hole-in-one.
But it wasn't just any hole-in-one; it was his first ever. And it wasn't just any first hole-in-one. It was an albatross.
Yes, it figures that, in the charmed life of Claude Giroux, his first hole-in-one would be an albatross.
While playing with his aunt and uncle on Tuesday, the threesome stepped up to the 7th hole, which comes with a fun, risk-reward tee shot decision. The fairway is split by a creek, which isn't unusual. But this creek runs diagonally up the fairway rather than across. So you can play it safe with a light iron shot to the left.
Or you can head right and go for the green, which shortens the hole, but invites all kinds of nightmarish trouble on the right.
Just don't be short. Or left. Or right. Just hit a perfect shot, and you'll be fine.
By heading right, the green becomes reachable at 270 yards, but so many things have to go well for you.
A view from the tee at the 7th hole at the Marshes Golf Club, where Claude Giroux had an albatross hole-in-one on Tuesday. Photo: The Marshes Golf ClubAnd even if you pure one and you're right at the flag, there's only a small opening at the front of the green. So even a slight kick, left or right, will have your ball swallowed up by one of the gatekeeping bunkers.
But Giroux has scored 484 goals (including playoffs) in his NHL career, and he's no stranger to having a shot go exactly where he wants it.
So, in more ways than one, he chose right... and was rewarded with an albatross.
The rest, as they say, is history.
Claude Giroux gets his first hole-in-one (and albatross) at the Marshes Golf Club's second hole on Tuesday.By Steve Warne
The Hockey News
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