By Christopher Powers
Will Zalatoris already has one of the more special holes-in-one a professional golfer can make in their career. It came on Thursday of the 2020 U.S. Open at Winged Foot at the par-3 seventh. A nine-iron from 165 yards. Incredibly, Zalatoris nearly made another ace later in his round.

And yet, as anyone who has ever made an ace can confirm, there is no ace like your first ace (not that I’d know). Zalatoris’ first came when he was eight years old, naturally. Must be nice.

It occurred on the par-3 second at Mariners Point in Foster City, Ca., where the rising PGA Tour says he got his start in the game. In an awesome video from the PGA Tour, Zalatoris went back to the site of that first ace and attempted to recreate it. The best part? He used the same club that he made the hole-in-one with as an eight-year-old. After a few tries, Zalatoris did, indeed, recreate it:

If you’ve ever seen one of those “Hole-in-one challenge” videos from the European Tour, you know that hammering away at trying to make an ace is no easy task. Yes, these guys are good, but that doesn’t mean they can hoop one from 160 yards out after a few tries like Stephen Curry hitting a half-court shot. There’s a reason aces are rare – because they require a ton of luck.

So credit to Zalatoris for actually pulling this off, with the same junior club, no less.