What are the odds?

Local kid hits it big... with a 3-wood

What do you have to do around here to get famous?

Famous in a good way, that is. My kids have been wondering that for years. They can't believe we have raised them not in Hollywood or New York City where they can be discovered, but in the boondocks of New Hampshire.

But here's a kid from our town who's got it figured out.

10-year-old who got a hole-in-one is media darling

On April 26, Ryan and his father, Tim, were playing their weekly 18 holes at Sagamore-Hampton. Both were having good rounds with two holes to play.

Ryan stepped up to the red tee box on the par 3, 164-yard 17th hole, took out his 3-wood and hit the ball well. The drive landed about eight feet from the pin and rolled into the cup for the youngster's first hole-in-one and the first of the season at Sagamore.

That garnered Ryan much more than an older golfer would have gotten for the same feat. Since the story appeared in Seacoast Media Group's Portsmouth Herald, Hampton Union and on www.seacoastonline.com, it has been picked up by national media outlets.

"It seems everybody is looking for that feel-good story," Tim Quinn said.

Quinn said his son turned down the radio interviews and, while he did speak to representatives of the Leno and Degeneres shows, he doubts Ryan will appear on them, despite the proddings of his older brother.

"He's a quiet kid and these things take weeks to set up," Tim said. "Leno is wrapping up his season, so there isn't time for Ryan to appear on that show, but they might be able to squeeze him onto the Ellen show. If we don't hear in a few weeks, it probably won't happen."

The inability — or unwillingness — to appear on radio or television can't dampen the joy. "I hit the ball and it was going right at the hole, then it rolled in," Ryan said after he hit the hole-in-one.

Sagamore-Hampton general manager Tyler Sanborn said Ryan shattered the mark of the youngest golfer to hit a hole-in-one at the course.

"It's definitely a thing where the more you think about it, the more amazing it is," Sanborn said.

Quinn, who aced Sagamore's par 3, 14th hole in 2006, could not be more proud of his son, who started playing at age 6.

"It was special," Tim said. "We went nuts."

And just what are the odds? According to the official U.S. hole-in-one golf register... the estimated odds of acing a hole with any given swing are one in 33,000.

And that's not even taking into account that Ryan is only 10 years old. Way to ace it, kid.