Whether it’s called a double eagle or an albatross, a score of 3-under par on a golf hole is close to the game’s Holy Grail, something few golfers ever come close to achieving.
That was true of 27-year-old Danny Syring of Tampa, Fla., at least until last Sunday. That’s when Syring did the unimaginable, making two double eagles in the same round at the Nicklaus Tournament Course at PGA West in La Quinta.
“If it hadn’t happened to me, I wouldn’t believe it,” Syring said.
In a foursome with his father Kevin, a PGA professional from New Jersey, and friends Jay and Renate Green of La Quinta, Syring made a 2 on the par-5 11th hole of the Nicklaus Tournament Course, holing a 6-iron from 200 yards. Then on the demanding par-5 15th hole with its island green, Syring holed a 5-iron from 205 yards.
“If I wasn’t there, it almost sounds like a fish story,” said the elder Syring, a 40-year PGA professional and head pro at Deer Run Golf and Tennis Club in Lincoln, Park, N.J.
“I wouldn’t be telling this story unless I actually witnessed this,” Jay Green said. “But it was just so extraordinary, so unbelievable. I’ve been playing golf for 63 years. I have never seen a double eagle.”
According to Michael Christensen of the website doubleeagleclub.org, Syring’s is only the third recorded instance of a player making two double eagles in the same round. The first was in 1964 and the second in 2015, and both previous times the golfers made two holes-in-one on short par 4s.
Christensen’s website says the odds of making a single double eagle are difficult to determine, with odds quoted around the internet as low as 1 million to 1 and as high as 6 million to 1.
“Some years there might be one or two double eagles on the (PGA Tour) and there might be 15 or 20 holes-in-one,” Christensen said.
“Danny is always making fun of me, because I’ve made 11 aces and he’s never made one,” said the elder Syring. “But I’ve been playing golf for 50 years, and not only have I never had one, I’ve only witnessed two up until that day.”
Playing from the blue tees of the Nicklaus Tournament Course with his father, Syring put his tee shot on the 490-yard par-5 11th into the dormant Bermuda rough just left of the fairway.
“I had 200 yards, and I hit a kind of high, thin 6-iron,” Syring said. “I hit the ball pretty high, and I always thought that’s why I’ve never had a hole-in-one. First, I’m not lucky, and second, I hit the ball so high it comes down and just stops.”
As the foursome reached the green, Syring’s ball wasn’t seen on the putting surface.
“My wife got out of the cart and my wife says, ‘Danny, where is your ball?’ and he said I think it might be in the hole,” Green said. “And my wife was the first one to look in the hole and the ball was in the hole.”
“I was pretty excited,” Syring said. “I took a picture and put it on Facebook, hey, I just made a double eagle.”
“When he made the first one, I said to him, that’s like making five aces,” the elder Syring said.
A second albatross
Four holes later, Syring had to take that photo down. On the 516-yard 15th hole, considered one of the toughest holes in the rotation of the PGA Tour’s American Express tournament, Syring’s drive left him in the fairway 205 yards from the cup.
“I hit a 5-iron, because it was a little against the wind,” Syring said. “And it looked good. My dad is 62 and he can’t see it and the Greens are both older, so I was the only one who could see it.”
Syring tried to convince himself the ball disappeared because it had rolled over a hump that divides the green from left to right.
“He hits the ball extremely high. If it was a normal kind of trajectory 5-iron, it never could have gone in the hole because it would have hit the front of the green and just ran to the back,” Green said. “And I couldn’t see where it ended up, because I’m 74 years old. And Danny said yeah, it might even have been in the hole. And we went up there and the ball is in the hole.”
“It was almost like surreal,” Kevin Syring said. “It was like, there is no way that went in.”
Any clubhouse celebration of the two albatrosses had to be put on hold, because an hour’s frost delay that morning at PGA West meant the father and son had just enough time to toss their clubs in the back of their car and head toward Los Angeles International Airport nearly three hours away to catch flights back to the east coast.
In fact, Syring said the time crunch might have led him to a three-putt on the 16th hole for a bogey and to hit an approach shot into a greenside bunker for another bogey on the 18th hole for a 32 on the back nine and a round of 70.
“I didn’t really play that well,” Syring said. “I was 6 under for those two holes and shot 70. If I was making it up, I wouldn’t have bogeyed two of the last three.”
A decorated high school player in New Jersey who, like any college player, flirted with the idea of turning pro while playing at the University of Tampa, Syring works for a medical employment recruiting company in Tampa. Syring said he still plays, but maybe no more than three times a month in the last three months.
As for the two double eagles, Syring says he hopes he doesn’t make one the next time he plays.
“Who would believe that?” he laughed.
Despite making the two double eagles, Syring says there is something still missing on his golf resume.
“I would trade one of (the double eagles) for a hole-in-one,” he said.
