No. 4, please: Jeff Sluman still has only hole-in-one at Augusta National's longest par 3
Jeff Sluman retrieved his Maxfli HT from the cup and began walking to the No. 5 tee box. Nearby, the native New Yorker noticed his mother, Doreen, with an outstretched hand.
“I want it!” the mother told her son. “Give it to me. Give it to me now!”
Sluman had opened his round at Augusta National birdie, birdie, par before throwing a dart toward the 213-yard pin that was planted in the back left quadrant of the fourth green. The shot off his 4-iron beelined toward the flag, struck the front of the green and rolled in, “like a one-foot putt,” Sluman recalled.
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Fifty-five Masters Tournaments were played prior to 1992, and 30 have been conducted since. No one has duplicated Sluman’s hole-in-one on No. 4.
Doreen treasured the ball for two years, and when she died in 1994, it was a family decision to bury them together.
“She always loved having it with her, so that’s where it stayed,” said Jeff, who placed fourth at the 1992 Masters, his best finish in 17 appearances.
There have been 33 aces in Masters history, including 23 at No. 16, six at No. 6 and three at the famed 12th. But only Sluman has conquered the fourth.
There’s no video of the shot, but Jimmy Burch, a reporter with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, was one of a handful of patrons who followed the pairing of Sluman and South African amateur Manny Zerman. In a column, Burch recalled the impromptu dance on the tee box, which he named the “Sluman Shuffle,” in appreciation of Jeff’s celebratory stutter steps.
Zerman, who won low amateur that year, remembered high-fiving his playing partner on the tee box.
“I’ll never forget it,” Zerman said. “It was a perfect 4-iron. Looked good from the second it left the club.”
Sluman is now employed by the CBS digital team during Masters Week to report on holes 4, 5 and 6. He works in the new television building across Washington Road and admits that being assigned the fourth hole was a coincidence.
“As good as these guys are, it’s hard to believe that nobody has done it since,” Sluman said. “But I gotta say, I’m not rooting for one to go in.”
As for the large crystal vase that’s awarded for a hole-in-one, Sluman admits, “It’s pretty incredible there’s only one.”
This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: 30 years later, Jeff Sluman reflects on Masters' only ace on 4th hole