Rob Chubey notched the first recorded ace at the Niagara-on-the-Lake Golf Club this season, with a hole-in-one on the par-3 fourth hole last Thursday.

The shot came during the weekly men's league competition and it means the club will be cracking open a celebratory keg of beer, with Chubey helping to serve his fellow golfers, this Thursday.

“It was a windy day and with the pin up front, it was about 125 yards,” Chubey said.

So he choked down on an 8-iron and “swung easy.”

The ball was well-struck and headed right at the flag stick. But thanks to a large sand trap in front of the green, people on the tee couldn't see the hole.

“Brodie Townley, who was in my group, said, 'That's going to be close,' ” Chubey recalled. And he was right.

When the foursome, including NOTL Golf Club owner John Wiens and Mark Edwards, walked up to the green, only three balls were visible.

There was a ball mark about six feet in front of the hole and “I thought, 'Great, it hit and ran right over the green,' ” Chubey said. But he was wrong.

He took a few steps and when he looked into the hole, there it was.

Elated – it's his second career ace, after holing one on the 19th hole at the Scarboro Golf and Country Club several years ago while playing as a guest – one of the first thoughts to cross his mind was, “I wonder how big the bar bill is going to be.”

It's an age-old tradition for the lucky golfer who scores a hole-in-one to buy a drink for everyone in the clubhouse afterward.

But head pro Billy Simkin told him because it happened during men's league play, the club will supply a keg for golfers the following week. It's been several years since there was an ace on men's day.

“I still had a pretty big tab that night, but it's a small price to pay,” said Chubey. 

The NOTL resident, who with his wife Valerie is a real estate agent, said he has seen at least a half-dozen holes-in-one over the years, including some pretty flukey ones that were poor shots that somehow found their way into the cup.

“It's nice to have mine here on my home course and on men's night” with his golf buddies, Chubey said.

A lot of amateurs have been known to lose their composure after a shot like that.

Not Chubey. He followed it up with a par on the next hole – a long par 5 – and a respectable score of 40 for his nine-hole round.

Other winners: Peter Chilibeck led the men's league modified Stableford scoring, with 22 points, followed by Chubey, Bill Smith, Johnson Hu and Greg Keldson with 21 points each.

Mark Derbyshire and James Grigjanis-Meusel shared low-gross honours, each carding a 1-under par 35.

Gross skins winners ($45 each) went to Tom Elltoft (#6), Brodie Townley (#8) and John Reynolds (#9). Net skins ($100 each) were collected by Bill Baitinger (#3) and Keith Dexter (#7).

Closest to the pin on #4 was Chubey, of course, and Steve McMillan won it on #9.