Kentuckian Emma Talley made the eighth hole-in-one of the 2023 LPGA Tour season on Friday at The Amundi Evian Championship. The 29-year-old aced the par-3 2nd hole at Evian Resort Golf Club from 153 yards, the second hole-in-one of her LPGA Tour career. Talley last made an ace in the first round of the 2022 CPKC Women's Open when she holed out on the 172-yard, par-3 13th hole.
"Might as well have bought a lottery ticket. I've been holing out a lot this year," said Talley, who holed out last week during the final round of the Dow Great Lakes Bay Invitational. "It's like the basic hole, the hole that everyone loves to see, we all posted at the beginning of the week. I hit a pitching wedge and it was perfect. Soon as I hit it I said, 'Go in the hole,' and it did. I'm glad my ball is listening to me."
With Talley's hole-in-one, CME will donate $20,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as part of their CME Group Cares Challenge – Score 1 for St. Jude, a season-long charitable giving program that turns aces into donations with a minimum guaranteed donation of $500,000 to St. Jude Children's Research Hospital, which is leading the way in how the world understands, treats and defeats childhood cancer and life-threatening diseases. Today's ace raises the 2023 donation total to $160,000.
Talley is one of many people whose life has been touched by cancer. Three years ago, she lost a close friend, Cullan Brown, to osteosarcoma in August 2020 at the age of 20. She also has a friend who was treated at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital as a child, so the $20,000 donation that will be made in honor of her ace means more to Talley than the "1" she got to write on her scorecard.
"I had a good friend that was in St. Jude's when she was younger and obviously had a friend that passed away from bone cancer just a few years ago," she said. "So cancer is close to my heart and I think it's awesome that CME does that. I know we all appreciate that. For me, it helped me make the cut, but it's doing much bigger things than making the cut and making a little extra money for us. It's very nice of CME to do that."
Hole-in-one alert! ⛳️@talley_emma hit her pitching wedge 153 yards on the 2nd hole at @EvianChamp pic.twitter.com/j42dYETlOG
— LPGA (@LPGA) July 28, 2023
)
)
)
)
