My golf story happened a couple of years ago at Spring Hill [Golf Club in Wayzata]. 


I was playing golf—the first outing of the season—and on the par 3 (hole 4), I hit my seven iron. It was pure and headed straight for the hole. It landed, rolled a foot, and then, of all things, leaned against the pin. 


I sighed to the caddy, “Just my luck!” 


He said, “Pat, if we pull the pin when we get to the hole and it falls in, it’s still a hole in one.” 


I answered that it wouldn’t really feel that way. I took one more look at my ball and, just then, it dropped in the hole! 


Golf for me has always been a spiritual connection to my parents, both of whom died young and were scratch golfers. I knew when I saw the ball drop in the hole that somehow my father had flicked it in with his finger—a sign that he is somewhere looking over me in this world.


—Pat Miles, former WCCO TV news anchor