One in 17 million.

Those are the odds of two people doing what Rick Miles and Kevin Ritter did Monday.

It makes getting struck by lightning, which has a 1-in-5,000 chance of happening in your lifetime, seem like an everyday occurrence.

"The greatest thing in my life is seeing my children born," Steve Mast said. "But this rates as the third greatest thing I've ever seen in my life. ... It's just something you couldn't get out of your mind."

And Mast only observed the spectacle.

On Monday at the Quincy Country Club, Ritter aced the 176-yard seventh hole with a 4-iron. The right-hander faded the ball from left to right until the ball finally came to rest in the cup for his first hole-in-one.

"I said, 'That might have a chance to go in. I'll be your witness,'" Miles said. "Sure enough, it hit the green and started rolling right toward the pin and disappeared. You could just tell it was coming right back at it."

It was an exciting moment for Ritter, a second-year golfer who is the assistant superintendent at Westview Golf Course. According to a 1999 issue of Golf Digest, the odds of an average player getting a hole-in-one are 1 in 12,000.

It's a rare feat but the foursome of Westview Golf Course employees -- Ritter, Mast, Miles and Tim Bearden -- hadn't seen anything yet.

After about five minutes of high-fives and raucous celebration, Mast had a tough act to follow.

Mast's shot barely made it past the women's tee box, returning the group back to reality for a second.

That changed when Miles, Westview's superintendent, took a 6-iron onto the tee box.

"So now I'm next to hit," Miles said. "And I turn around and say, 'Hey, Kevin, it would be nice to have two -- wouldn't it?'"

His shot looked nothing like the one Ritter hit.

But the straight approach had the same amazing result.

"Now, you've got four clowns at the golf course screaming and jumping around like a bunch of 46-year-old 12-year-olds," Mast said. "You know what I'm saying? Rick and Tim (Bearden) fell down on the tee block, and we're all in awe because it's one of the most unbelievable things that we've ever saw in our life. Just to see one hole-in-one is amazing enough."

Miles' shot bounced once on the green, hit the flag stick and then bounced straight down into the hole - joining Ritter's ace in the crowded cup.

"After I did that, I looked at Tim and that's the one thing I'll remember -- the expression on his face was like nuts," Miles said. "(Bearden) tried to get up and hit (after a few minutes) and his knees were shaking. We were all numb. We're like, 'That didn't happen.'"

It is Miles' fourth career hole-in-one. He said he aced the No. 8 hole at the Knights of Columbus on July 4, 1990, and made two holes-in-one -- in 1988 and 1989 -- at Spring Lake Country Club.

All four of Miles' aces have one thing in common -- they've all been with No. 3 balls. Even if Miles plays a different numbered ball for other holes, he always tries to switch to a No. 3 for Par 3s.

It's difficult to determine if the feat -- of two aces on the same hole by a foursome -- has ever happened in Quincy. Even if it has, it's a remarkable accomplishment and a memory these golfers -- including the witnesses -- will cherish for the rest of their lives.

And what are the odds of a course superintendent and his assistant achieving it on the same hole while riding in the same cart?

"I told Timmy, 'That's the problem. We're in the wrong cart,'" Mast said with a laugh.

Ritter, Mast, Miles and Bearden are all Westview maintenance employees that were playing against the QCC crew in the Maintenance Cup. The twice yearly competition pits four members of each course against the other.

The Westview squad won the scramble. But it was hard for the foursome -- especially Ritter and Miles -- to concentrate for the final 11 holes.

"We said to ourselves, 'OK. No more about the hole-in-ones 'til afterwards,'" Mast said. "Tim says, 'Next person to say something about a hole-in-one is going to get slapped in the face.'"

Mast, a full-time maintenance laborer at Westview, said Bearden broke his own rule a few minutes later.

"We get to the next hole and all of a sudden he said something like, 'I just can't get (those) hole-in-ones out of my mind,'" Mast said.

Miles insists Bearden is the best golfer in the foursome.

"He was kind of our ace in the hole," Miles said.

Actually, it turns out, Miles and Ritter were.

-- mgoldberg@whig.com/221-3367