Thirteen-year-old eighth-grade golfer Sara Dumouchel made a notable hole-in-one at the Browning Invite tournament at Marias Valley Golf & Country Club last month.

Dumouchel explained that she was standing on the sixth hole, a par 3, and wasn’t sure whether the ball would land out of bounds, knocking her out of the tournament. 

“‘Oh, it’s not even gonna make it to the green. It’s way too short,’” she recalled thinking as she teed off. “And then it rolled really far and somehow made it.” 

Dumouchel said there was a hill on this hole that blocked her view, and it wasn’t until she and her teammates walked down that she learned it was a hole in one. 

“I didn’t believe it for the first few minutes,” she said. “Once I saw it, I was just kind of in shock, but I was excited and happy that it went in.” 

Dumouchel explained that she didn’t realize it was a big deal until her dad, Mike, said he’d never had a hole-in-one. 

“I thought people got them like probably once a year or something,” she said. 

Dumouchel is on the Polson High School Girls Varsity Golf Team alongside two other eighth graders. Coach Cameron Milton said they have a really great young girls' team that is improving by the day.

Milton explained that an amateur golfer's odds of making a hole-in-one are 12,500 to one per shot. Even he, a pro golfer, has never made a hole-in-one in his 36 years of playing. 

“She didn't realize how cool it was,” Mike said. 

Mike explained that Dumouchel’s name would be added to a plaque at the course, which has featured about 60 to 70 names since the 1970s. He said the plaque includes about one name per year on average, and that she earned it this year. 

Dumouchel has played golf since she was little, with her dad, and said she learned the sport from him. When the opportunity arose to join the high school team, she was all in. Now she is a dual-sport athlete, running cross country at Polson High School as well. 

“That's pretty incredible for an eighth grader,” Milton said. “She's a great kid.” 

After her memorable hole-in-one, Dumouchel hopes her team will place at state this year and that she will break 90 strokes.