The Cinco Ranch High School boys golf team finished 3rd at the Concan Golf Tournament near San Antonio this past week. Sophomore James Chong was the highlight of this event due to his rare accomplishment of sinking a hole-in-one on the par 3, 16th hole. The team’s overall score was 651 with Chong placing 19th with 163 as his individual 2-day score.

“It’s one of the biggest tournaments we go to,” Chong said. “We stayed for three days and two nights and I got to spend  a lot of time with my team. They were so excited for me when I made my hole-in-one. I heard noises all around me from everyone who saw my shot. The feeling was absolutely surreal.”

This ace is special, and it is only the second time someone from Cinco Ranch has achieved it. 

“It also happened about seven years ago, and because of it being so rare they had specially recognized me at the tournament,” Chong said.

Chong’s shot created a lot of excitement among those attending, but his coaches didn’t get to see it firsthand and had the news delivered to them a hole away.

“I didn’t see it,” head coach Nate Embley said. “Coach Van Chancellor, from the WNBA Comets, is the only person who saw it because James was playing with his grandson.  Coach [Kevin] Hildebrand and I were a hole away helping a player try to find his ball in the thick grass.  A couple of coaches came to us in a cart and said you need to go talk to James right now. Both Hildey and I thought something was wrong.  As soon as we rolled up to him he was smiling.  We knew it was either a hole in one or a hole out for eagle. James is a very reserved person so when we asked, he just was like ‘yeah I did’  he said ‘I missed it a little’  which is typical for James. He is a perfectionist! James was still playing his hole-in-one ball on the next hole. So we had him exchange it, so that he wouldn’t lose it.”

In addition to winning 3rd place in the tournament, the team is very excited for Chong.

“I was happy about the third place finish,” Embley said.  “To be honest, we really didn’t play well.  The kids will agree too.  The course was playing tough with winds gusting to 40 mph and the greens had a sudden onset of crabgrass which made putting difficult.  All five guys on our team have excellent short games but it is tough to make putts with crabgrass greens.  We know we could have won it if we played just a little better.  It’s good to know that even when we aren’t on our best game we still can medal. We have great team chemistry. The guys were really pumped up for him. It was an awesome day!”

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