For most golfers, a hole-in-one is a once in a lifetime experience.
For 101-year-old Village of Oak Creek resident H.B. “Boots” Claunts, it’s not even close.
On Monday, Aug. 24, Claunts stepped up to the tee on the par-three seventh hole at Canyon Mesa Country Club. His tee shot not only hit the green but eventually found the bottom of the hole. It was Claunts’ second ace since turning 100 in March of 2019 and his third since the beginning of 2018.
In addition to Claunts, the ace was witnessed by Arland “Rev. A.” Averill, Don Robbins and Don Ryan.
“I gave him a play-by-play,” Averill said. “He gives me the ball and tee, I set him up. We say ‘What club are you going to use?’ He said ‘7-iron.’ He asked ‘Where’s the pin in relationship to the tree?’ He can see a mass; he saw the tree. I told him that he had to hit it right of the tree. He hit it up in the air, landed on the front of the green to the right of the tree, rolled it to the left and it went dead center in the hole.”
Claunts has been playing golf for most of his life. He was born and raised in Oklahoma and later served in World War II in what was then known as Burma [now Myanmar]. In the years following the war, Claunts moved to Casa Grande and worked in banking. In 1990, he moved to the Village of Oak Creek, playing his first round at Canyon Mesa in February of that year. For the last 30 years, he’s remained a fixture at the course.
Claunts’ life has featured nearly as many holes-in-one as United States presidents he’s experienced in his lifetime — 18. Choosing a favorite hole-in-one might normally be a challenge for any golfer with more than one ace, let alone 16.
But for Claunts, that’s not an issue.
“That’s easy, the last one — and it might be the last one,” Claunts joked.
At his age, Claunts doesn’t hit the ball a long way. Because of that, he said that while eight of Canyon Mesa’s nine holes are par-threes, the only ones that he could possibly ace are holes 6 and 7.
Many amateurs — even low handicap players — spend their entire lives in golf without ever recording an ace. Even for professionals, hitting a hole-in-one is not a given. Despite being ranked as one of the top players in the world, Bryson DeChambeau had never hit a hole-in-one in competition or practice until lightning finally struck for him during the final round of the 2019 Masters.
So, that begs the question: Is Boots just especially lucky or does he have some sort of magic touch that has allowed him to achieve golf’s greatest thrill so many times?
His theory tends to support the former.
“We can’t say it aloud but it’s s-h luck,” Claunts said, laughing. “I’m not that good a golfer. Let me say that. I whiff the ball and everything else. But sometimes I catch it just right and it goes. There’s not too much skill. It’s mostly luck and probably the good man upstairs guiding it.”
