By Gary Curreri

Although Lighthouse Point’s Linda Kenoyer doesn’t have an official handicap, she at least shares something in common with her professional golfer daughter Stefanie.

The 64-year-old Kenoyer recently picked up her firstever hole-in-one when she hit a 9-iron, 95 yards to ace the Par-3 hole at the Winding Hills Country Club in Montgomery, NY.

“It was pretty crazy,” said Kenoyer, who was visiting family in New York and was able to get away for a round of golf. “I’m not a great golfer, and Stefanie has three hole-in-ones, so, for me to do it, it was such an amazingly fluke thing.”

Kenoyer, who says she plays to about a 22 handicap, called it the “right club for the right distance” on the executive course.

“I kind of heard it and we walked up to look and see and I said, ‘I think it is in the hole. How did that happen?” said Kenoyer, who was playing with her husband Steve. “I hit it a little left of the hole and it kind of banked down. It rolled right in. I heard it hit the pin. It was exciting. We found the ball in the cup.”

“I didn’t expect myself to get one,” Kenoyer added. “It was a shock really. I hit the ball very cleanly. It was a good shot. It was a perfect connection. I was pretty lucky to get it to bank correctly and fall into the cup. It takes quite a lot of luck and some skill because it has to be the right club and the right distance.”

Stefanie, 24, a professional golfer on the Symetra Tour, and two-time participant on the Golf Channel’s Big Break television series during 2013, started playing golf 12 years ago and took lessons from Bob Loring, the head golf professional at the Pompano Beach Golf Course.

Linda Kenoyer also started playing golf at the same time and took a few lessons from Loring. She found it ironic that her daughter got her first hole-in-one at age 14, while she was 50-years older when she got her first. Stefanie had three career hole-in-ones.

“I’ve had very, very few lessons, just a couple of lessons,” Linda Kenoyer said. “I’ve gone out with Stefanie when she has been around and she’s given me some tips. I just never really had the time to take the lessons.”

Following her round, she sent a text to her daughter.

“It said, ‘you won’t believe this. I just got my first hole-in-one,’” the elder Kenoyer said. “She was all excited. I think all of my friends were more excited than I was. I guess it is a big deal in a lot of ways because you don’t know if you are going to get another one. That could be it for my whole life.”

She was surprised to find out a short time later that Stefanie made a post on her Facebook page congratulating her mother on her milestone.

“That was very nice,” Linda Kenoyer said. “It was very, very touching when she said how proud she was of me. It was very sweet and she wrote a nice post about it. It is so funny because we are always so proud of our kids and the things that they do, and we try and be supportive, so here it was in reverse. I thought it was a very thoughtful thing she did.”

By Gary Curreri

Lighthouse Point’s Stefanie Kenoyer is hoping the second time is a charm.

Kenoyer, 24, who was a contestant on Big Break Mexico earlier this year, will compete on Big Break NFL, which premieres on Oct. 8 at 9 p.m. on the Golf Channel.

“Not many people in our sport get this kind of opportunity to be on Big Break in the first place, let alone two Big Breaks in one year!” said Kenoyer, who was one of the more popular competitors on Big Break Mexico and was the sixth player eliminated from the series. “I’m blessed to have another opportunity to give it another go.”

Participating on two Big Break series this year was unique for Kenoyer. Big Break NFL Puerto Rico was shot the first two weeks of June while Big Break Mexico was airing on the Golf Channel. Her elimination episode on Big Break Mexico aired two weeks after she returned from Big Break NFL Puerto Rico.

“I have become an expert at keeping secrets, but this has been even tougher because I had to keep secret about not just one Big Break, but two,” joked Kenoyer, who was paired with 17-year NFL kicker Al DelGreco and Oren Geri in Big Break NFL. “All of the teams were full of great competitors! We had an absolute blast. I wouldn’t trade this experience in 2013 for the world.”

Big Break NFL Puerto Rico will be all about reunion, redemption and teamwork this fall when 12 previous Big Break competitors return to team up with six of the NFL’s all-time greats. Two past Big Break competitors – one male and one female, will join one NFL legend to form threeperson teams. The series will feature a new format twist to Big Break – teams will win or lose as teams. On the line will be $50,000 to the winning NFL legend’s designated charity, along with 2014 PGA TOUR and LPGA Tour tournament exemptions, cash and other prizes for the Big Break competitors.

“It is a pressure-packed, nerve racking situation every time you step out on the course on Big Break,” Kenoyer said. “When they called me and said, ‘we’d like to have you back,’ immediately, no questions asked, I said ‘yes’…to think I got to spend three weeks with six of some of the greatest football players there are was an incredible experience. There was no tackling on the golf course, thankfully; but we were all fierce competitors.”

NBC Sports’ Sunday Night Football sideline reporter and Emmy Award-winner Michele Tafoya joins Golf Channel’s Tom Abbott to cohost Big Break NFL Puerto Rico. Serving as the backdrop will be the luxurious Dorado Beach Resort in Dorado Beach, Puerto Rico.

“The pressure on Big Break is an all-time high because in a normal golf tournament, you have 54 holes or 72 holes to make up for your mistakes,” said Kenoyer, who played high school golf at Cardinal Gibbons and Westminster Academy high schools before playing collegiately at Furman University.

“On the show, you literally had one chance and your team is counting on you and everyone at home is watching, and you have 80 people around you with the crew and all of the cameras … and never have I felt more pressure, and I played in the U.S. Open.”

Kenoyer, the lone contestant on Big Break Mexico to have competed in a major championship – 2009 U.S. Women’s Open, said she

knows what it is like to play in front of large crowds and cameras; yet, this was a different experience altogether.

“I still felt my hands shake and my heart beat out of my chest,” said Kenoyer, who is playing full-time on the Symetra Tour with a refreshed sense of confidence and passion following the experience.

Taylor Collins, also 24, of Ft. Lauderdale, won Big Break Mexico when she defeated Tampa’s Matthew Galloway in an intense 18- hole singles match on the season finalé.