Four eagles in a row? Todd Zimmerman records incredible feat at Hillcrest CC

By Ken MacLeod

Surely some golfer, somewhere, sometime, matched the accomplishment of Todd Zimmerman on Feb. 28 at Hillcrest Country Club in Bartlesville.

Tiger Woods one day during his thousands of practice rounds. Scottie Scheffler during all the 58s he’s shot in practice in Dallas. We don’t know, and neither does AI, but there is no obvious record of someone making four eagles in succession on a championship caliber course.

Yet that’s exactly what Zimmerman, 48, Bartlesville resident and a member of Hillcrest for just over a year, did this winter.

Beginning on the par-5 seventh hole, Zimmerman made eagle on that hole, the par-4 eighth, the par-5 ninth and the par-5 10^th.

Disconsolate after a bogey-quadruple bogey start to the round, Zimmerman didn’t even bother to report his feat to the pro shop. Director of Golf Jon Hron found out later and alerted Golf Oklahoma.

Zimmerman, who works for Crossland Heavy Contractors, grew up in Coffeyville, Kan., and played high school golf for Field Kindley while working summers at Hillcrest Golf Course, the nine-hole Perry Maxwell design perched above the town. He set a course record there with a 29 (six birdies, no bogeys) while in high school, but has had a hot-and-cold relationship with the game since walking on his final year at Pittsburg State in 2001.

“I got kind of burned out on golf around then and a lot of years would only play five or six times,” he said.

His GHIN handicap is 1.4 but he was playing this round from the regular men’s tees with three friends on a Friday afternoon.

On this day, he was already 8 over through six holes when he reached the tee on the 501-yeard par-5  No, 7. A good drive left him 190 out from the green perched on a hillside and he hit 6-iron to 10 feet and made the putt.

His drive on the 352-yard par-4 eighth hole wound up 50 yards below the pin and he pitched that in for a 2. Then on the 502-yard, par-5 ninth, an uphill dogleg right around trees, he hit a 5-wood second shot from 225 yards to 25 feet and walked up and buried the putt.

“At that point I’m thinking great, I’ve made three consecutive eagles and I’m 2 over,” Zimmerman said. “Part of me was still frustrated because obviously the round could have been something really special.”

Three consecutive eagles were recorded in competition by Finland’s Toni Hakula at the Albierto de Chile in 2019. Obviously there is no record of casual round eagles.

But Zimmerman wasn’t done. The 10^th hole at Hillcrest is another 501-yard uphill par-5 and he smoked his second shot from 230 yards out with the same 5 wood and it stopped less than a foot away. Four consecutive eagles!

At this point his friends were in awe and Todd was getting pretty excited. He made a birdie on 13 to go 1-under after his 8-over start. But three late bogeys left him at 74.

“74 with four eagles!” Zimmerman said. “It was a good battle back. At least it tells me than when I turn my brain off and just swing good things can happen.”

Cary Cozby, director of golf at Southern Hills Country Club, said he and his brothers Chance and Craig, all professional level players, played that stretch in 5-under once or twice during all their rounds growing up at Hillcrest where father Jerry was the head professional. But he had never heard of anyone coming close to making four eagles there.

Director of Golf John Hron said he thought it was a joke when Zimmerman’s playing partners told him about the four big birds.

“I said you mean he had four birdies in a row,” Hron said. “They were like no, four eagles. I have never heard of anyone making four eagles in a round, let alone in a row. And these were standard hole locations and the greens were running about 11. I’ve been playing 44 years and never heard of anything like this.”