Duke Again Proves She’s One of a Kind on the Golf Course

Donna Duke, for the 19th time since September, 1984, made a hole-in-one Wednesday at Saticoy Regional Park.

It was her sixth at Saticoy and came with a six iron on the 145-yard 14th hole, a par-3 hole that she had never aced.

Duke’s last hole-in-one had come Aug. 22 at River Ridge Golf Course in Oxnard.

It’s almost becoming routine.

“I sure don’t feel like it’s getting to be a routine,” said Duke, a 55-year-old retired civil service worker from Camarillo. “I’ve been struggling for a month. I put new grips on my clubs because I have arthritis in my right hand. It was the first good game I’ve had since then.”

She shot an 80.

Duke, who did not have a hole-in-one in her first 14 years of golf, started her streak on Sept. 22, 1984. Since, she has had aces on three consecutive days in January, 1985, and even one on April Fool’s Day.

Although she has had witnesses to every one of her holes-in-one, some people, including editors at Golf Digest magazine, have questioned her remarkable feats.

A spokesman for the Guinness Book of World Records last year said the whole thing sounds “rather freakish.”

Duke, however, has a logical explanation for her somewhat illogical accomplishments.

“I just feel like like I’ve had a hell of a lot of luck,” she said.