Top of the Morning, July 2, 2024

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On Tuesdays, we’ll chop it up with our Golfer of the Week. Email nominations to jrossow@news-gazette.com

The golf ball Dana Busch used for her first hole-in-one is somewhere in the shrubs at No. 9 at Lake of the Woods in Mahomet. That’s where she lost it after acing the 110-yard No. 4 a few holes earlier.

“I figured it was a lucky ball so I kept playing with it,” she said. “Maybe someone else picked it up and gets a hole-in-one. There’s your next Golfer of the Week!”

Dana gets this week’s nod for her magical 8-iron shot last Monday witnessed by friends Susan Bates, Mary Alumbaugh and Cheryl Easter. It comes 20 years after picking up the sport. “I always looked at a hole-in-one as a lucky shot, the coming together of good stroke, direction, bounce and roll,” she said. “My thinking was ‘someday it might happen.’ “

The celebration was low-key and slow coming.

“Cheryl said she thought it rolled in. I said it was probably behind the pin,” Dana said. “So many times we think it’s in, but getting closer there it sits on or off the green.

“We need sunglasses that make the ball glow so we can see it better.”

A club champion at her hometown course — Lake of the Woods “is beautiful and the people are great,” she said — Dana said her favorite clubs are driver and putter. A farm girl from Macon County, she has degrees from the University of Illinois and Parkland College, worked at Carle, volunteers at her church and dabbles in woodworking.

The fresh air and friendship that come with golf keep her coming back. She’s been hooked since Alumbaugh brought up the idea of giving it a try while driving past Lake of the Woods and saying “we could do that,” Dana said. “From the road it looked easier. One more reason to be outside enjoying nature.”