Hole in one!

During a hazy Saturday morning on Aug. 22, Daquiri Olson was prepping for a morning of golf with her grandfather when they decided to start at hole No. 8, a par 3 at the Mott Country Club.
As she swung her club for the first tee shot of the day, it just felt right. The swoosh of the club was followed by the crisp ping of a perfect connection. The ultimate combination of luck and skill culminated in an unforgettable memory for a girl and her grandfather.
The seventh-grade daughter of Lance and Cameo Olson had just landed the rare feat of a hole in one.
She was certain the ball had landed at the front of the green, but the slight fog clouded their view of the entire green, Daquiri recalls, sharing the story she’ll probably be telling her own grandchildren someday.
“He told me just to practice swing, get loosened up and stuff, then I teed my ball up. And when I hit my ball, it felt like a really, really nice swing. It went in the air, it landed right in front of the green. Went on the green, then rolled. It was a little bit of a foggy day, and we couldn’t see the ball, so my first thought was, ‘Did that go in?’ And then we hit two more balls just to warm up. And then we drive and we look behind the green first. And the ball is not there. I start jumping up and down, super, super excited. And then I go look in the hole and it’s there,” Daquiri says.
“My grandpa was just shocked,” she says.
Her grandfather, Gayle Olson, had landed a hole in one on No. 2 on the same course years earlier, so he is familiar with the feeling of the feat.
The pair caught the moment with a photo and sent it to family, including Daquiri’s mom who is also the coach of the girls golf team.
“There are a lot of grown men that golf every day in Arizona that never had a hole in one,” Cameo says. “It’s super rare.”
The shot was one memorable part of the golf season for Daquiri, a Mott-Regent Public School student who competed on the varsity level this season and narrowly missed a qualification for the state tournament.
With just three junior high girls making up the girls golf team this year, Daquiri joined her teammate, eighth-grader Claire Miller, on the varsity and junior high circuit, while the third member of the team, seventh-grader Emily Bohnet, competed at the junior high level.
Daquiri and Claire both placed at the top of their junior high divisions, and stayed competitive with juniors and seniors at the varsity meets.
“I like playing with them, because I feel like it’s more of a challenge for me,” Daquiri says of competing with the high school players.
“Daquiri and Claire both have improved so much from last year,” Cameo says
“In every single one where Daquiri competed as a seventh-grader, she’s taken first place. So, you can tell that Daquiri and Claire have been practicing over the summer. They’ve done really well. They both have really improved,” Cameo says.
“Emily, she is a great girl as well. She hasn’t golfed as much, but she’s done very well expanding her golfing this season and getting in there and learning,” Cameo says.
“Last season, I wasn’t even placing first in the junior high meets,” Daquiri says.
During this season's varsity regional tournament last weekend, where the top 10 automatically qualify for the state tournament, Daquiri shot a 106 for 16th place and Claire shot a 111 for 22nd place.
“They both have a good head on their shoulders. I think they both do a really good job. I don’t think they’re intimidated. I think the only time they kind of get a little intimidated is they haven’t been to as many of these courses. The older girls have been to some of these courses before,” Cameo says.
Daquiri had been in the hunt for a state berth earlier in the season, with a 10th-place score of 97 at the Bowman County Region 5 qualifier meet Sept. 4, just 10 strokes off a qualifying round, and ninth place at the Region 5 qualifier Sept. 11 at the Mott Country Club.
Daquiri attributes her success to summer golf lessons and working with instructor Kirby Robb, along with mentoring from her grandfather, as she’s on the links nearly every day during the summer.
“Since school started, my grandpa and I started golfing together and that also really helped me,” she says.
“It just clicks with me,” she says, as she’s been swinging a club since she was about 7 or 8 years old.
With her young team, Cameo hopes to grow the program for the next season.
“Our future looks bright. I’m hoping we get some more girls next year,” Cameo says.
Last season, five girls were trailblazers, as the first girls golf team fielded by Mott-Regent Public School since 2019 under a reformation of the sport.
Under a new contract for services between the Mott-Regent and New England school districts, the schools are making both golf and cross-country available to all their students. Girls golf is in the fall and boys golf is a spring sport.
Since the agreement is not an official sports co-op, the athletes are competing under their own schools.
Claire, Daquiri and Emily all competed on the team last season, and returned for this season, which ended with the regional meet last weekend.