Michigan Golf Journal June 2020

Michigan Golf Journal Salute to Nurses Kelly Spitz is an emergency room nurse and a frontline hero. So when local golf courses started to open up recently, you couldn’t blame her if she wanted to get away from all the hardships she’s been seeing at the hospital, get outside and be one of the first to swing the clubs, even if she is very new to the game. And as they say, good things happen to good people ... so of course, she got a hole- in-one. “I always kind of believed in karma, so maybe this is part of that, some good among all the tough times we see at the hospital every day,” Spitz said about dealing with COVID-19. “I don’t know if I deserved to get this (ace) because of what I do, it’s mostly pure luck, but it was nice. Certainly, something to enjoy with all that is going on.” In only the third time she had played golf “for real,” Spitz got the hole-in- one at Cedar Creek Golf Club in Battle Creek in late April. Spitz, who lives just outside Olivet and works at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, became a member at Cedar Creek Golf Club this spring with her friend, Kenny Sult, who lives in the Battle Creek area. Using a driver on the 125-yard No. 16 hole, Spitz had one of her best swings of the day, saw the ball bounce off the cart path and onto the green. “I was just excited to hit a good shot,” said Spitz, who admitted she had never even reached the green off the tee ever in her short golfing life. “So, when I saw it hit the green, I was super excited. Then it kept rolling and rolling, and then it disappeared.” Sult, her playing partner who had turned away and missed the shot, heard all the yelling and was excited for Spitz as well. “She is so new to it, I’m not sure she realized right away what she had done or what it meant,” Sult said. “It’s definitely crazy. I’m happy for her. Being a nurse, and we were playing with a friend of ours who is also a nurse, they are getting a little stir crazy considering what they are going through at the hospital. So, this is a cool thing to happen.” MGJ Just Third Time Playing Golf, Mich ER Nurse Drops Hole-in-One Editor’s Note: reprinted by permission, Battle Creek Enquirer By Bill Broderick