A hole-in-one is quite an accomplishment, but they’re not the rarest bear in the woods, unless you get one like Kelly LaPointe of Brewer did Aug. 24.

LaPointe aced the 314-yard par-4 ninth hole at Island Green Golf Center in Holden during the Auto Dealers Golf Invitational scramble tournament.

LaPointe had already been close on a couple of the par 3’s, and his tee shot came off his driver headed straight for the green.

“From 315 yards out, it’s kind of hard to tell,” said LaPointe. “You always tell it to go in, of course.”

As he and playing partners Joe Simpson, Allen Worster, and Gary Blackman watched, the ball closed in on the hole.

LaPointe recalled saying, “I think it’s in, I think it’s in, I think it’s in.”

The group on the green let them know that it did indeed go in, and LaPointe started celebrating.

“I think everyone on the course heard me,” he said.

As if the hole wasn’t long enough, there had been another factor to overcome as well.

“It was almost dead into the wind,” said LaPointe.

The rest of the round was basically a blur.

“I still hit a few good shots, but it was hard to focus,” he said.

Then came another stop at No. 9.

“The second time around I was a little short [of the green],” said LaPointe, who admitted that thoughts of repeating his effort crossed his mind.

“You look at it again and imagine what if,” LaPointe said.

You might say that thinking about getting a second ace in a round was a little ambitious considering the 37-year-old sales representative for Darling’s Honda has been playing golf for 25 years and had never made a hole-in-one before.

“I’d never even witnessed one, let along shoot one,” said LaPointe.

He has been close, though.

“I had one within a couple of inches about 10 years ago, on the [par-3] 16th at Hermon Meadow,” said LaPointe.

Ironically, LaPointe won a nearest-the-pin honor in the tournament, but it was on the par-3 eighth hole.

And a LaPointe won a long drive honor, but it was his mother Rachel who accomplished that.

Did he take any ribbing for getting the ace but not winning anything for it?

“Absolutely,” he said.

In fact, it cost him. He observed the time-honored rule of buying a round of beverages afterward.

“Fortunately it was 11 a.m. and everyone was being a little reserved,” said LaPointe. “But I didn’t mind at all.”