Some golfers go a lifetime with striking a hole-in-one.
According to WorldGolf.com, the odds of getting a hole-in one for the average golfer is more than 8,000 to one.
According to CasinoMaze.com, the odds are 5,000 to one.
For Great Bend’s Tom Vernon, the Superintendent of USD 428, he has defied the odds, recording five aces over a 46-year stretch — all on par-3 holes.
Vernon’s latest hole-in-one came Sunday at Stoneridge Country Club. Using an 8-iron, Vernon nailed it on the 180-yard, hole No. 4.
“There’s no accounting for how lucky a person can be,” the 61-year-old Vernon said on Tuesday. “I’ve been lucky.”
Vernon recorded his first hole-in-one back in 1964, with his father witnessing the feat.
 “My first hole-in-one came when I was 15,” he said. “I grew up in Russell, and I got it on No. 8 at the Russell Golf Club, using a 5 iron.
“I drove one up there and it didn’t get over five feet off the ground the whole way up and it landed right in front of the green and rolled up and curled right in the hole.”
Sixteen years and six days later, on June 21, 1980, Vernon, then 31, made his second hole-in-one.
 “I was playing up at Hidden Lake in Derby and I hit another ace, using an 8 iron on No. 7, another par 3. I think the hole is now No. 17. They’ve changed their course around.”
Seven years elapsed before Vernon did it a third time.
In 1987, when Vernon was 38, he recorded a hole-in-one at Stagg Hill Golf Course in Manhattan.
“On their little 135-yard, par 3, on No. 17. I was using a 9 iron,” Vernon recalled.
Ten years later, he somehow did it a fourth time.
“I got it at Salina Municipal Golf Course in 1997, using a 9-iron, another par-3, on hole No. 4.
Amazingly, on Sunday in Great Bend, where he has lived the past seven years, going on eight, he did it once again. Witnessing the feat was the trio of Tom Berschmeidt, Randy Wetzel and Tom Harris.
Vernon’s secret to his hole-in-one success? He doesn’t have one.
Just luck, baby.
“It’s just like any other shot, really,” Vernon said. “I’ve seen people hit it in the hole from 150 feet out from the fairway and not have a hole-in-one, but an eagle or something.
 “Sometimes you hit it in the right spot and it just rolls in. There’s a lot of good players that have come extremely close and have never had a hole-in-one. Sometimes you hit it and the ball is six inches from the hole and it doesn’t go in. It’s just a matter of luck, really.”