July 2007 Archives

From The Associated Press:

BETHESDA, Md. — Kevin Stadler stole the spotlight from Tiger Woods, at least
for one hole.
Stadler, Woods’ playing partner for the third round of the AT&T National on Saturday, wowed
the gallery with a hole-in-one on the 196-yard, par-3 13th. His shot with a 6-iron landed
below the hole, rolled up the slight slope and disappeared into the cup.
“I never expected it was going to go in, but I thought I hit a really good shot,” said
Stadler (USC), who has a handful of aces in his career. “It kind of took a hop in the right
direction. I was walking up there and the place went crazy.”
Woods and Stadler had both walked off the tee box before Stadler’s ace dropped. They
couldn’t see the ball go in, but upon hearing the crowd roar and realizing what happened,
Woods gave Stadler an emphatic high-five.
“All of a sudden, I watched him, he’s trying to talk to his caddie, I’m trying to write down
scores for Kevin and it goes in and he says, ‘What happened?’” Woods said. “It was kind of a
shocker.”
With his ace, Stadler won the hearts of those in the sizable gallery following Woods. The
crowd, which was 15-deep in some places around the course, was still buzzing when Woods
lined up his 21-foot birdie putt. Someone in the crowd yelled for Woods to let Stadler take
the putt.
The cheer Stadler received after the hole-in-one was louder than any for Woods during the
round.
Stadler, the son of PGA golfer Craig Stadler (USC), finished the day tied with Woods at 2 under
for the tournament and seven strokes behind leader Stuart Appleby.
“That was the most thoroughly enjoyable round of golf I’ve had in who knows how long,” said
Stadler, who was paired with Woods for the second time in his career. “For a change I didn’t
get in my own way out there. I was kind of having fun and taking all this in. It was
probably 10 times the biggest gallery I’ve ever been in.”