Josiah Foster doesn’t expect a tee shot to go in the hole every time he plays golf.
But lately, the hole sure keeps getting in the way.
On March 26, the 14-year-old Jacksonville resident made his second hole-in-one at the Hidden Hills Country Club, using a pitching wedge from 120 yards to knock a TaylorMade ball to the back-left pin. His first was two years ago at the Brentwood Golf Club.
Less than three weeks later, on April 14, Foster struck again, from more than double the distance, with the longest club in his bag, for the rarest of aces: On a par-4 hole.
He launched his Titleist GT2 driver at a Kirkland ball from 267 yards on the 17th hole at the Jacksonville Beach Golf Club and watched it land on the green.
He didn’t see it go into the hole and, like most golfers, initially thought the worst. He and playing partner Robert Holmes started looking behind the green because Foster had flushed it, with a slight wind to their back.
“I thought the ball was probably going to probably going to go over the green because it hit [the green] midway,” he said. “We checked the back side, checked the front, checked every other place and then checked the hole and it was there.”
There it was, nestled in the cup.
Here’s how much Foster is beating the odds: The National Hole In One Registry estimates a 10-handicap player (Foster is a 10.5) making a hole-in-one on a par-3 hole is 5,000-to-1.
The odds of making an ace on a par-4 hole are 6 million-to-1.
But let’s talk more about odds.
Let’s talk about the odds that a 5-year-old with Attention Deficit Disorder would gravitate to the slowest-paced of all sports, and how it changed his life.
Golf has ‘transformed’ Josiah Foster
There’s more to Josiah Foster’s story than a couple of fortunate swings. That he’s playing golf at all still surprises his parents, Jason and MaryAnn Foster, who struggled to find an activity that would hold their only child’s interest.
“He tried other sports … flag football, basketball,” said Jason Foster, a native of Ames, Iowa, who is a civilian electrician for the Navy and works on Sikorsky H-60 helicopters at Mayport. “Team sports seemed to distract him.”
Golf, a solitary, pastoral pursuit, was different.
“Golf has transformed him,” said MaryAnn Foster, a native of Texas who worked for Communities in Schools for 21 years before leaving to homeschool Josiah. “When he started playing in tournaments at the First Tee [at the Brentwood Golf Club] Josiah was calm, focused, and disciplined. He didn’t get frustrated about bad shots. I kept asking myself, ‘Who is this child?’ We really believe God has used golf in his life. It’s his safe place.”
Josiah isn’t quite sure he can pinpoint what he likes most about golf. Is it being outside, walking, challenge of hitting different shots under different conditions, or the emphasis on sportsmanship and decorum?
It’s a combination of all of the above but he doesn’t try to overthink it.
“Golf calms me down,” he said. “Give all the credit to Jesus. He blessed me with this sport.”
Watching golf on TV was the family’s first clue
It was an early fall Sunday afternoon and Jason Foster was trying to find something to watch with his 4-year-old son … something that would hold his interest for longer than a few minutes.
Football? Basketball?
No to both. After a few plays, Josiah would stop watching and fidget.
Jason Foster finally turned to the Golf Channel, where one of the PGA Tour’s Fall events was being aired.
Josiah stopped squirming and watched. And watched. And kept watching.
Observing this were his parents, who were amazed that a sedate sport such as golf was capturing their son’s undivided attention.
“I didn’t grow up with golf,” Jason Foster said. “Golf, to me, was the background for a Sunday afternoon nap. The commentators are always calm and soothing. Maybe that’s what got Josiah’s attention. But he sat there and watched for hours.”
Whenever the family would go to a restaurant that had TVs, Josiah would look for the TV with a golf telecast and insist the family sit near it.
“He was glued to golf on TV,” MaryAnn Foster said. “Of all the sports, golf was the only one he would stop and watch.”
Josiah Foster said the notion that golf is slow on TV depends on perspective.
“After a few plays of football, it all looks the same,” he said. “Someone is throwing or running with the ball. Basketball is the same. It’s just passing and shooting. But golf was different. On TV it would switch to different players, who were on different parts of the golf course, hitting different shots.”
It wasn’t long before Josiah wanted to try playing golf. His parents bought the obligatory set of plastic clubs, but that didn’t last long.
Josiah wanted real clubs, on a real golf course.
Josiah Foster learned golf at First Tee
When Josiah quickly outgrew his plastic clubs, his mother signed him up for lessons at the First Tee facility at the Brentwood Golf Club. When First Tee instructor Susan Waite was working with MaryAnn Foster on filling out the paperwork, Josiah, still 5, was running around the room, unable to sit still.
“I was a little worried about what Susan was thinking,” Foster admitted.
Waite said her first thought was, “I like this kid.”
“We work with kids with ADHD all the time,” Waite said. “I had not seen a child with that level of it until Josiah. But everything is manageable. It depends on my reactions to his actions. I took a lot of deep breaths and went to work.”
Waite quickly learned how to cope with Josiah’s ADHD: keep giving him more to learn and to do. Golf instructors have hundreds of drills they can teach kids, and if Josiah got bored with one, she got him started on another.
“At that age, they all start to lose focus after about 15 minutes,” she said. “With Josiah, I would just move on to another drill a little quicker. I had an opportunity to give him added attention, and he took it and ran.”
Literally.
Duke Butler III, who volunteers at the First Tee, said he remembers the sight of Josiah and Benny Moran, a friend of his, hitting shots on the golf course and then running to their balls.
“They were so excited about playing golf that they would run between shots,” he said. “They couldn’t wait to hit the ball again. Josiah’s enthusiasm brought a smile to everyone’s face.”
MaryAnn Foster said the family will always be grateful to Waite for her patience as Josiah’s first coach.
Waite turns the praise on MaryAnn and Jason Foster.
“Someone had to put the first club in his hand,” Waite said. “I just happened to be there. His parents stuck with it. They’re unbelievable.”
Josiah Foster has learned more than golf
And it wasn’t just golf. Jason and MaryAnn Foster said the life skills and sportsmanship her son learned from the Moore-Myers Children’s Fund staff, First Tee instructors, Butler and retired Hidden Hills head professional Ted Hopkins have been part of the total package.
That was important to Jason and MaryAnn Foster, who met and were married 23 years ago after a set of circumstances related to their faith.
MaryAnn Foster was working with college students at her church in San Antonio and as a life skills instructor in some of the poorest areas of the city. She became friends with an Iowa State graduate who had just moved there, and he asked if some of his Fellowship of Christian Athletes Group from ISU could come to San Antonio on a mission trip.
After that, MaryAnn Foster said she felt “a calling” to move to Ames to work with the Iowa State FCA group. They began taking mission trips to New Orleans through Urban Impact, and she and Jason, a member of the ISU FCA, met and co-led the third trip they would make to New Orleans. They began dating and were married nearly 18 months later.
The Fosters eventually came to Jacksonville to work with 2nd Mile Ministries, which helps families in Brentwood. They soon learned of the First Tee and Moore-Myers Children’s Fund programs at the Brentwood Golf Club, leading to Josiah’s introduction to golf.
“Golf and the adults Josiah has had in his life, Coach Susan, Duke and Ted have centered him, focused him,” she said. “It’s brought out character, integrity, sportsmanship … as Christians, golf has taught him all the things you want your kids to emulate.”
“So many of golf’s values come straight out of the Bible,” Jason Foster said. “Respect for the game, your opponent, for the golf course … golf has been a huge blessing for Josiah.”
Josiah Foster praised for his sportsmanship
Two incidents prove their point about the values golf reinforced for Josiah.
Josiah’s parents waited until he was 7 before letting him enter First Tee tournaments at Brentwood. Two years later, he was playing in an event and called a penalty on himself when his ball moved at address.
“No one else saw it,” MaryAnn Foster said. “People were asking Josiah if they were sure he needed to penalize himself. He just told them that he saw it and called the penalty.”
When Josiah made his hole-in-one at Hidden Hills, he was playing nine holes by himself with no witnesses. When he showed his scorecard to his mother, she saw the “1” at No. 16. Then she saw something else.
Josiah made a 10 at the par-4 18th hole. He didn’t put down an “X” or double-par. He didn’t pick up his ball and walk it in. He counted every stroke, going 6-over, two holes after his ace.
“His decorum and his desire to play by the rules are very admirable,” Butler said.
Josiah Foster was challenged at Jax Beach
Robert Holmes is a retired educator from Atlanta. He walked on at the Jacksonville Beach Golf Club on the afternoon of April 14 as a single, and the pro shop paired him with Josiah Foster.
Holmes quickly realized Josiah was a pretty good player and a better kid.
“I didn’t know him, and he didn’t know me,” Holmes said. “But he was very, very polite and pretty soon it felt like I had known him my whole life.”
Holmes also had a good understanding of how far Foster could hit the ball, and when they got to the 17th tee, he laid down a bit of a challenge.
“He could hit more than 250 yards, and I’m around 200,” he said. “We had the wind to our back and I told him, ‘Let’s have some fun. You drive the green, and I’ll try to put one a little bit short of the green.’”
Holmes then watched Foster’s tee shot soar through the air and bound onto the putting surface.
“I thought to myself, ‘that could be a hole-in-one,’” Holmes said. “Then we found it. We were both pretty excited.”
Josiah added a punctuation mark to the par-4 ace when he eagled the par-5 18th hole, hitting driver off the tee and driver off the deck, with the ball coming to rest 3 feet from the hole. He tapped in for a 1-over 36, but 4-under on the last two holes.
Josiah Foster’s golf future
Josiah Foster’s golf game is still a work in progress. He played on the Trinity Christian golf team last fall as a freshman and is in the North Florida Junior Foundation Middle School program.
Waite said what Foster needs is competitive at-bats.
“He needs to get out there and tee it up under tournament conditions,” she said. “NFJG events and anything else he can.”
Like any 14-year-old, Josiah Foster dreams of playing on the PGA Tour. His two heroes are Jordan Spieth and Scottie Scheffler, and he cited their game and their faith as the main reasons.
“They’re humble … not arrogant,” said Josiah.
Josiah Foster is also getting involved in golf in other ways. He’s now a First Tee junior instructor. He and his mother are volunteers at The Players Championship, where they helped at the 17th Hole challenge, a replica of the Island Green and yes, he’s aced that one too.
Josiah also has a dream that began after he attended one of the All-Star Kids Clinics run by the Tesori Family Foundation: He wants to design an 18-hole putting course for special needs children.
Until then, Josiah Foster’s “happy place,” as his mother said, is still putting a tee in the ground, hitting the ball, then finding it and hitting it again.
Unless it goes into the hole.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: Josiah Foster’s aces in the hole are only part of his golf journey
Reporting by Garry Smits, Jacksonville Florida Times-Union / Florida Times-Union
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
