Sayville resident Bob Burton has a knack for holes in one

The month of May has been particularly merry for Sayville resident Bob Burton, with a certain deja vu involved.

On May 6 he aced the 168-yard 16th hole at the Muttontown Country Club with a 6-iron. On May 16 he aced the 168-yard fourth hole at the Bellport Country Club, also with a 6-iron.

"Both shots were exactly the same and I didn’t see either one," said Burton, an 8-handicapper who now says he has four aces to his credit with the last two discovered by someone else in his group.

"The one at Muttontown was up the hill and I didn’t see it go in," Burton said. "We were looking and looking. The guys we were playing with said ‘we don’t like it, but your ball is in the hole.’

"The one at Bellport, I thought it was a little long. I went to the back of the green to look for it and my partner found it. He said ‘are you looking for this?’ and it was in the hole."

According to the National Hole in One Registry, the odds of a player making two holes-in-one in the same round are 67 million to 1. Burton didn’t do that, but making two aces 10 days apart must be pretty close.

Bethpage on-line bookings

Because of the overwhelming demand for tee times, state parks officials have issued new guidelines for the on-line reservation system at Bethpage State Park in an attempt to make it more equitable.

In a statement to its on-line account holders early this week, the following guidelines were issued effective May 23 for the five courses at the park:

"For 18-hole reservations on the combined Blue, Yellow, Red and Green courses, account holders will now be limited to making four reservations per week (Sunday through Saturday). The Black course policy will remain unchanged at one reservation every 28 days.

"The cancellation window will be increased from 6 hours to 12 hours, without penalty. Any reservation cancelled inside of 12 hours from that tee time will see the tee time holders account frozen until the per player cancellation fee of $15 is paid."

There has been considerable frustration among players trying to utilize the system, which allows a reservation to be made at 7 p.m. seven days in advance. The parks statement said that at least 500 people are online at that time for less that 200 time slots (4 players per slot).

"It’s a case of supply and demand and we have huge demand," said Chip Gorman, Long Island regional director of state parks. "There are just a lot of people trying to play golf."

The walkup policies remain in effect.

Competition

Long Island pros finished atop the Met PGA’s Senior Junior Championship at Timber Point Golf Course last Thursday.

The team of Danny Balin of Fresh Meadow, who is playing in this week’s PGA Championship, and Todd Wingerter of Burning Tree in Connecticut won with a score of 15-under par for 27 holes. Mark Brown of Tam O’Shanter and Matt Dobyns of Meadow Brook along with Sean Quinlivan of Piping Rock and Darrell Kestner of Deepdale finished second at 14-under par.

John Guyton was medalist with a 68 to lead the Long Island local qualifying for the U.S. Open at Huntington Crescent on April 27. Also advancing to the final qualifying on June 7 at Century CC and Old Oaks CC in Westchester were Caleb Wilson (70), Matthew Lowe (70), Juan Carlos Benitez (70), Jesse Fitzgerald (71) and Gerald Macedon (71).