Pair of aces. Montini golfers card holes-in-one in back-to-back matches

The odds of making a hole-in-one are 12,500 to 1 for the average golfer, according to the PGA.

Say you are a low handicapper. The odds drop to 5,000 to 1.

Do you play on the PGA Tour? Still kind of steep at 3,000 to 1.

What about two teammates carding a hole-in-one during the same round of golf? According to the National Hole in One Registry, the odds skyrocket to 1 in 67 million.

The odds must be astronomical for two golfers from the same high school team getting holes-in-one in back-to-back rounds.

That’s precisely what Liam O’Dea and Charlie Paciga of Montini Catholic High School accomplished.

On Sept. 17 at Heritage Oaks Golf Club in Northbrook during a match against DePaul College Prep, Paciga notched his hole-in-one.

Two days later during a practice round at Village Links of Glen Ellyn, O’Dea responded with a hole-in-one.

Montini golf coach Ben Michelon called the feat “super rare.”

“You could be one of the best golfers in the world and not get one. A lot of it is luck, especially with having two in the same week,” Michelon, 21, said. “You don’t hear about that at all. It’s kind of like a perfect game in bowling, a perfect game in baseball.”

The teammates took a break from a recent short-game practice at Village Links of Glen Ellyn to discuss their good fortune.

Paciga, 16, of Villa Park, is a junior. His ace was on the No. 8 hole playing “143 yards from the tips.”

“I hit a Titleist wedge. There was a little wind. It took one hop six feet short of the hole. It went a little bit long. On the second hop, it spun back into the hole,” Paciga said.

“The funny thing was the kid I was playing from DePaul said it would be crazy if he got a hole-in-one right now because he’d forget about how bad he was playing. And then I get the hole-in-one,” Paciga said.

It’s sort of old hat for Paciga. It was his second ace this year.

His first came when he was playing solo at the Michigan City Golf Course in Indiana. His parents had dropped him off to play while they shopped at an outlet mall.

“I was on the third hole. I made a hole-in-one and no one was there,” he said.

This time, he had witnesses.

“The crazy thing is both my coaches were there watching,” Paciga said.

O’Dea, 16, is a junior from Naperville. He’s been playing golf since he was 3 years old when he was introduced to the game by his grandfather Bob Westberg.

His ace came on the third hole on a windy Sept. 19.

“It’s 102 yards, but there was a lot of wind, so it was playing at least 115. I hit a gap wedge, but took a smooth swing so it wouldn’t go as far. I wanted to get it close,” O’Dea said.

You can’t get much closer.

The ball landed about a foot past the pin and spun back into the hole, he said.

“It felt great. It was awesome. I thought it was a good shot. I took a nice divot,” O’Dea said.

After he and teammates Jonathan Hajek and Jack Barrett ran up to the green to confirm it, he called his grandfather.

“I said, ‘Gramps, you’re not going to believe this.’ He said, ‘No way. That’s super,’ ” O’Dea said.

Both golfers used Srixon golf balls.

“The Srixon rep, his daughter goes to our school. So we get a deal on balls,” Michelon said of Alex Mendez, the Illinois PGA president whose daughter Ava attends Montini.

Will getting two aces help Montini when it hosts an IHSA regional at Village Links of Glen Ellyn on Oct. 2?

While O’Dea thinks it may provide some momentum, Paciga disagrees.

“It’s pretty much all luck. The better player you are, the more likely it becomes. But at the same time, you can’t control whether that ball goes in the hole or whether it’s sitting two inches (away),” Paciga said.

“It doesn’t make me any better of a player or make me more accomplished. Of course, you have ‘hole-in-one’ next to your name. It’s just a cool accomplishment,” Paciga said.

It may be more than luck for Paciga, who started playing at age 5.

On the hole before his ace, also using a pitching wedge, he hit an approach shot from 130 yards out that resulted in a two-inch tap in.

Michelon of Glen Ellyn and assistant coach Steve King of OakBrook Terrace witnessed that shot, too.

“It’s just incredible,” King said of the two aces. “I’m 55 years old and I’ve never had a hole-in-one.”

Michelon offered some simple advice for golfers looking to join the exclusive hole-in-one club.

“Srixon golf balls,” he said with a laugh.

“They do spin a lot,” O’Dea said.

“They are really good golf balls,” Paciga said. “Get the ones with the Montini logo.”