Former Chiefs kicker Jan Stenerud carded a hole-in-one on Sunday. It wasn’t his first.
This sounds like an idyllic day for any Chiefs fan.
After watching the Chiefs crush the Jets on Sunday, Jan Stenerud met up with friends at the Milburn Country Club. Near the end of the round, Stenerud achieved every golfer’s dream: he hit a hole-in-one.
“I’ve been playing golf for a while,” Stenerud said modestly, “there’s still an awful lot of luck involved.”
Stenerud, 77, has long enjoyed hitting the links. He joined Milburn in 1969, a year that should have extra meaning for Chiefs fans.
“I joined there the same year we won the Super Bowl, that’s when I started playing golf a little bit,” he said. “I didn’t play much for a while. I had my first hole in one at Milburn in 1977 I think, and then this was the same hole. All the other ones have been in different parts of the country.”
Stenerud’s ace on Sunday, which came at the 119-yard 15th hole (using a 9 iron), was the sixth. Six is also the number of Pro Bowls Stenerud appeared in during a decorated 19-year NFL career.
The first 13 seasons were with the Chiefs (1967-79), a team with which he left an indelible mark. In addition to helping the Chiefs win Super Bowl IV by making three field goals and two extra points, Stenerud is second all-time in scoring (1,231 points) and field goals (279).
As Stenerud’s NFL career thrived and he built a resume that would lead to becoming the first pure kicker elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame, his golf game was steadily improving.
When his football playing days ended, Stenerud scratched his competitive itch at a number of charity golf events.
“I had a low handicap for a while,” Stenerud said. “I actually won the club championship at Milburn in 1995 I think it was. I was 52 years old. So I had a three handicap and I also used to play in the Lake Tahoe tournament (which began in 1990). The first 10 years they had it, I did fairly well out there several times.”
Stenerud had 13th-place finishes in 1996 and ‘97 at the Lake Tahoe celebrity tournament and he was 16th in 1998. Stenerud said he also finished second at Michael Jordan’s celebrity golf tournament in Woodridge, Illinois, in the 1990s.
“I still never considered myself a real good golfer by any means, but I enjoyed a low handicap for quite some time,” he said. “Now it’s barely in the single digits, but I still have good days.”
That includes Sunday when he was joined by his friends Steve Martens, Mark Jorgenson and Mike Whitsitt on the course. The three were on hand to witness another hole-in-one by a Chiefs legend.
“We had a nice afternoon,” Stenerud said. “It gave us a little bit to talk about for a while. That’s one great thing about golf. You can enjoy it with good friends. Enjoyed the Chiefs victory and then the nine holes of golf afterward.”
This story was originally published November 4, 2020 at 8:50 AM.
