Lionel Young waited nearly five decades.

With each passing year the anticipation grew, and he began to wonder if it would ever happen.

Then on June 27, it finally did.

“It had been a long time coming,” Young said with a laugh.

It was Young’s very first hole-in-one. It came on sixth hole of Cambrian Ridge’s Loblolly course.

“The hole was playing about 112 yards, and I hit a 7 iron,” Young said. “I actually lost the ball (while it was in the air), so when we got across the water I was looking around the edge of the green and down near the bank when my playing partner Jerry Fuller walked over and found the ball in the hole. I couldn’t believe it. At that point euphoria set in.”

Young, who began playing golf in 1966, doesn’t remember much else about his round that day, but he will never forget his first ace.

“It’s something special,” he said. “It’s quite a feeling to see the ball in the hole like that.”

Statistics would seem to support Young’s statement.

According to a study done by Golf Digest, the odds of hitting a hole in one are 1 in 3,756 for a PGA Tour player. The odds for an amateur climb to 1 in 12,750. Sports Illustrated, which also did its own study, lists the odds at 1 in 45,000 for an amateur golfer.

Young is now among the number of amateur golfers that have beaten the odds.

“I’ll never forget it,” he said. “I still can’t believe it.”