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The Honolulu Advertiser

Posted at 6:02 p.m., Saturday, April 7, 2007

Woman, 102, records first hole-in-one

Associated Press

CHICO, Calif. — Elsie McLean took a driver out of her golf bag like she always does on the fourth hole at Bidwell Park Golf Course, where the 102-year-old has golfed for decades.

But this time she aced the 100-yard, par-3 hole.

On Thursday the lifelong resident of Chico, a city about 170-miles north of San Francisco, became the world's oldest golfer ever to shoot a hole-in-one on a regulation course, according to a newspaper report.

But McLean did not immediately celebrate after hitting the shot. She thought she had lost her ball. Because of the slope of the green, McLean and her golf partners could not see where her ball landed after she teed off. They searched the grass and green as they approached the hole, and were confused.

"Where's my ball?" McLean asked.

Her friends, Elizabeth Rake and Kathy Crowder, found it in the cup.

"I said, 'Oh, my Lord. It can't be true. It can't be true.' I was so excited. And the girls were absolutely overcome," said McLean. It was McLean's first ace in a long golf career.

"Well everybody wants a hole in one, and I said 'Why can't I have a hole in one?' I came within inches once," McLean told television station KNVN.

The oldest person before McLean to ace a hole Harold Stilson, 101, of Boca Raton, Florida, on May 16, 2001 according to ESPN.com.

McLean, who has been featured in golf magazines before, will appear on "The Tonight Show with Jay Leno" on April 24 to celebrate her accomplishment.

"For an old lady," she said, "I still hit the ball pretty good."