Hey, this game is easy

By BROOKE WOLFORD

Staff Writer

Tiger Woods hit his first hole-in-one at the age of 8.

So did Trey Lambert of Coeur d’Alene.

Trey’s ace came last Wednesday during a long, hot tournament at the Prairie Falls Golf Club in Post Falls. The crowd gathered at the sixth hole on the nine-hole course as Trey began setting up to swing. After a satisfying smack from the impact of the 7-iron, the ball flew through the air and over a bunker, then vanished.

“Trey, I don’t see your ball, dude,” Tom Lambert, Trey’s father, called as they searched the green. Trey hurried over to find his ball, and there it sat, at the bottom of the cup.

He made his 126-yard hole-in-one while competing with his Junior Professional Golf Association team.

Veteran duffers, you might want to cover your eyes and ears for this next part: Trey’s new to the game. He picked up a golf club for the first time when he was 4 years old but only during the past few months or so has he gotten even semi-serious about it. And he’s had to

overcome a physical challenge along the way, too.

When Trey was just 2, his mom noticed a cracking sound when she picked him up. After a trip to the doctor, they discovered Trey had severe scoliosis, a disorder where the spine curves in either a “C” or an “S.” Trey had a 55-degree curve in his spine, sticking him with a back brace for two years.

But that didn’t slow him down. His dad would look out into the backyard and see Trey swinging a golf club, even with the back brace. After quitting on golf for a while, Trey started playing again last spring with his dad at the Coeur d’Alene Public Golf Course. So far, he’s played just 11 nine-hole rounds, and he plans on continuing his golf career. When asked if he thought he’d make another hole-in-one, Trey responded, “It matters how my luck is doing.”

Trey’s Junior PGA team includes kids 8 to 14 who travel to local golf courses to compete. His dad said kids usually don’t hit the ball more than 10 yards, but Trey always had his sights set farther.

“He’s always talking about, ‘Hey, did you hit a hole-in-one?’ And I say, ‘Not many people get hole-in-ones, Trey. That’s all luck and how you hit it; there’s a whole bunch to that,’” Lambert said.

The best part for Lambert wasn’t his son making a hole-in-one, though. It was the experience Trey got to have because of it.

“The most exciting part was how well he got treated once he finished the round and got in the clubhouse,” Trey’s dad said. “There’s still a lot of people there and they had already posted he had gotten a hole-in-one. He was treated like a gigantic celebrity. People were taking pictures and he was sitting at his own little table.”