By Gary Curreri
Special Correspondent
Pompano Beach’s Rita Melville called her first “official” hole-in-one an early Christmas present.
Melville, 71, had two previous hole-in-ones at the American Golfers Club in Ft. Lauderdale in the mid-1980s, but didn’t know she had to tell anyone.
The 67.5-acre, 18-hole executive course, which ran along the western boundary of the Coral Ridge Country Club, opened in 1958, but had been closed since late 2005, when its irrigation system was damaged and landscaping destroyed by Hurricane Wilma. Residential homes, a four-acre park and a practice range now occupy that space.
“It was quite an event,” said Melville, who recorded her recent hole-in-one on the Par- 3, 114-yard 11th hole on the Palms Course at the Pompano Beach Municipal Golf Course two weeks before Christmas. She used a 5-wood. “It was a nice early Christmas present.”
“I was just trying to get it on the green,” said Melville, who was playing with Maureen Zolubos, Susana Rust and Nancy Kellermeyer in the Pompano Beach Women’s Golf Association’s weekly 9-hole league. “There is a bunker to the right and I usually go way left because of the bunker. This time, I decided to go for it because the pin position was better.”
Melville hit her shot and it landed short of the green and started straight for the hole.
“I sat there and watched it, not thinking for a minute that it was going to go in the hole,” Melville said. “It just rolled and rolled forever and finally it disappeared. The three girls I was playing with all started screaming and yelling and jumping up and down. I said it must have gone over the back of the green. I didn’t believe it until I looked and found it in the bottom of the hole.”
The Liverpool, England native retired in 2000 after enjoying a 31-year career in advertising. Melville played for about five years in the 1980s and gave it up. She just started playing again three years ago and now plays at least twice a week. She said her next goal is to get one on the other course so she can “prove it isn’t a fluke.”
“It is a lovely group of women,” said Melville, who is the vice president of the ladies league. “We play to have fun and enjoy the sport.
“I like that every hole is a new challenge,” Melville added. “You are competing against yourself and trying to be the best you can be. The thing about the ladies I play with is that they make it fun. We don’t take it too seriously. The social aspect is really nice as well as the game itself. Some of them have been playing all of their lives. We have women who are playing in the 80s and some in the 90s. They may not hit as long, but they hit it straight.”
