Frank Bensel makes back-to-back holes-in-one at the U.S. Senior Open

NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — The next round in Newport is on Frank Bensel — and make it a double.

The 56-year-old club pro from New York made back-to-back holes-in-one at the U.S. Senior Open on Friday — a first in the 1,001-tournament history of the USGA and believed to be the only time it’s happened on any major golf tour.

“It was like an out-of-body experience,” Bensel said before posing for pictures with the ball, 6-iron and pin flags from the fourth and fifth holes at Newport Country Club.

“I’ve played a lot of golf in my life, and just to see a hole-in-one in a tournament is pretty rare,” he said. “The first one was great; that got me under par for the day. And then the second one, I just couldn’t believe it. To even think that that could happen was amazing.”

It was just the second time a golfer has made two holes-in-one in the same round in any USGA event since the inaugural U.S. Amateur was held in Newport in 1895. Donald Bliss aced the eighth and 10th holes in the 1987 U.S. Mid-Amateur at Brook Hollow in Dallas; because he started on the back nine, Bliss made a hole-in-one on his first and his 17th holes of the day.

According to the National Hole-in-One Registry, the odds for one player making two aces in the same round are 67 million to 1. The odds of aces on consecutive holes aren't known, but few courses have consecutive par-3s like the 7,024-yard, par-70 A.W. Tillinghast course on the mouth of Narragansett Bay.

They were Bensel’s 13th and 14th holes-in-one in a career that includes appearances in three PGA Championships and the 2007 U.S. Open; he has never made a cut on the PGA Tour. He said his career highlight was shooting a 67 at Southern Hills at the 2021 Senior PGA Championship.

Or at least it used to be.

“After these two holes-in-one, I just didn’t even know,” said Bensel, who teaches at Century Golf Club in Westchester County in the summer and Mirasol in Palm Beach Gardens, Florida, in the winter. “Oh, yeah. Everybody is going to want a lesson now, for sure — on a 6-iron.”

Playing with his 14-year-old son, Hagen, as caddie, Bensel was 4 over after the first round and made a bogey on the second hole on Friday. When he got to No. 4, a 173-yard par 3, his son recommended a 7-iron but Bensel knew he didn’t want to leave it short.

The ball landed on the front of the green, hopped a few times and rolled into the cup. On the fifth tee, Bensel pulled out his 6-iron again and took aim at the pin 202 yards away.

“I tried to calm him down. Just bring him back, you know?” said Hagen Bensel, who was named after Hall of Famer Walter Hagen. “He landed it perfectly. And he was like, ‘How ‘bout another one?’ while it was going down.”

Frank Bensel followed up his consecutive aces with four bogeys in a row before making the turn and adding three more on the back nine. He finished the day at 4-over 74 and missed the cut with a two-day total of 9-over 149.

“I didn’t do anything great except for kind of those shots today,” Bensel said. “I was hoping that I could have added a lot more good scoring after that to have made the cut, but that didn’t happen."

Still, his club, ball and glove are headed for the USGA’s museums in Liberty Corner, New Jersey, and Pinehurst, North Carolina. So Hagen Bensel will soon have a chance to see the artifacts — and learn more about his namesake.

“I don't know much (about Walter Hagen)," he said. “I don’t pay attention to my parents that much, as much as I should. But I know that he was a great golfer, one of the best to ever do it.”

Asked what was next for him, Frank Bensel said: “The original plan was to get some sleep and get ready for tomorrow, but won’t need to do that.

“We’re going to have a good time and kind of lay back,” he said, nodding toward his son. “He wants to play golf somewhere. Anybody know where he can go play?”

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Frank Bensel, left, and his caddie and 14-year-old son, Hagen, pose in front of the clubhouse after Bensel turned up a pair of aces on the back-to-back holes during the second round of the U.S. Senior Open golf tournament in Newport, R.I., Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jimmy Golen)

Frank Bensel, left, and his caddie and 14-year-old son, Hagen, pose in front of the clubhouse after Bensel turned up a pair of aces on the back-to-back holes during the second round of the U.S. Senior Open golf tournament at the Newport Country Club in Newport, R.I., Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jimmy Golen)

Newport Country Club superintendent Chris Coen, left, and volunteer Joe Oliveria, right, watch as Frank Bensel signs the hole cutter, the blade of which is going to the USGA museum, after Bensel turned up a pair of aces on back-to-back holes during the second round of the U.S. Senior Open golf tournament in Newport, R.I., Friday, June 28, 2024.(AP Photo/Jimmy Golen)

Frank Bensel, left, and his caddie and 14-year-old son, Hagen, pose with hole 4 and 5 flags after Bensel turned up a pair of aces on the back-to-back holes during the second round of the U.S. Senior Open golf tournament in Newport, R.I., Friday, June 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Jimmy Golen)

Frank Bensel, center, plays on the 18th green in front of the Newport Country Club clubhouse during the second round of the U.S. Senior Open golf tournament in Newport, R.I., Friday, June 28, 2024. Bensel turned up a pair of aces back-to-back holes. (AP Photo/Chris Lehourites)

SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Beryl began pounding the southeast Caribbean on Monday as a powerful Category 4 storm after becoming the earliest storm of that strength to form in the Atlantic, fueled by record warm waters.

The storm was expected to make landfall in the Windward Islands late Monday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center.

Hurricane warnings were in effect for Barbados, Grenada, Tobago and St. Vincent and the Grenadines as thousands of people hunkered down in homes and shelters. The last strong hurricane to hit the southeast Caribbean was Hurricane Ivan 20 years ago, which killed dozens of people in Grenada.

“It’s going to be terrible,” Ralph Gonsalves, prime minister of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, said ahead of the storm and urged people to stay indoors “and wait this monster out.”

Beryl was located 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of Grenada on Monday morning, with maximum sustained winds of 130 miles (215 kilometers) per hour, and was moving west-northwest at 20 mph (31 kph). It was a compact storm, with hurricane-force winds extending 35 miles (55 kilometers) from its center.

The storm had not made landfall yet, but officials in Barbados already received more than a dozen reports of roof damage, fallen trees and downed electric posts across the island, said Kerry Hinds, emergency management director.

Once Beryl passes, drones will assess damage and speed up response, said Wilfred Abrahams, minister of home affairs and information. Before, it used to take two hours to receive information as crews fanned out across the island, versus seven minutes with drones, he noted.

A tropical storm warning was in effect for St. Lucia, Martinique and Trinidad. A tropical storm watch was issued for Haiti’s entire southern coast, and from Punta Palenque in the Dominican Republic west to the border with Haiti.

Forecasters warned of a life-threatening storm surge of up to 9 feet (3 meters) in areas where Beryl will make landfall, with 3 to 6 inches (7.6 to 15 centimeters) of rain for Barbados and nearby islands and possibly 10 inches in some areas (25 centimeters), especially in Grenada and the Grenadines.

“This is a very dangerous situation,” warned the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

The storm was expected to weaken slightly over the Caribbean Sea on a path that would take it just south of Jamaica and later toward Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula as a Category 1.

“It should be emphasized that Beryl is forecast to remain a significant hurricane during its entire trek across the Caribbean region,” the National Hurricane Center said.

Officials in some southeast Caribbean islands announced controlled shutdowns of electricity and warned of water outages ahead of the storm, urging people to seek shelter. They warned of landslides and flash flooding as they shuttered schools, airports and government offices.

Hours before the storm, Barbadian Michael Beckles said he feared the worst for his island despite witnessing how people were taking it seriously.

“As prepared as we can try to be, there are a lot of things that we can’t control,” he said. “Electricity probably will go. We’ll have issues with water. There are a lot of houses that are not ready for a storm like this.”

Beryl strengthened from a tropical depression to a major hurricane in just 42 hours — a feat accomplished only six other times in Atlantic hurricane history, and with Sept. 1 as the earliest date, according to hurricane expert Sam Lillo.

It also was the earliest Category 4 Atlantic hurricane on record, besting Hurricane Dennis, which became a Category 4 storm on July 8, 2005.

“This is a dangerous hurricane for the Windward Islands," said hurricane specialist and storm surge expert Michael Lowry, who warned that when Beryl comes ashore, “it’s going to be a very serious situation.”

Beryl amassed its strength from record warm waters that are hotter now than they would be at the peak of hurricane season in September, he said.

Beryl also marked the farthest east that a hurricane has formed in the tropical Atlantic in June, breaking a record set in 1933, according to Philip Klotzbach, Colorado State University hurricane researcher.

Among those weathering the storm was Jaswinderpal Parmar of Fresno, California, who had traveled to Barbados for Saturday’s Twenty20 World Cup final, cricket’s biggest event. He and his family were now stuck there with scores of other fans, their flights canceled on Sunday.

He said it's the first time he has experienced a hurricane, with heavy rain starting at midnight. He and his family have been praying, as well as taking calls from concerned friends and family as far away as India.

“We couldn’t sleep last night,” Parmar, 47, said. “We were keeping an eye on it.”

Even as Beryl bore down on the southeast Caribbean, government officials warned about a cluster of thunderstorms mimicking the hurricane’s path that have a 70% chance of becoming a tropical depression.

“There’s always a concern when you have back-to-back storms,” Lowry said. “If two storms move over the same area or nearby, the first storm weakens the infrastructure, so the secondary system doesn’t need to be as strong to have serious impacts.”

Beryl is the second named storm in the Atlantic hurricane season, which runs from June 1 to Nov. 30. Earlier this month, Tropical Storm Alberto made landfall in northeast Mexico and killed four people.

On Sunday night, a tropical depression near the eastern Mexico coastal city of Veracruz briefly strengthened into Tropical Storm Chris, the third named storm of the season. It weakened on Monday and was downgraded back to a tropical depression forecast to move inland. The National Hurricane Center early Monday reported heavy rainfall and flooding, with the possibility of mudslides, before the storm dissipates.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration predicts the 2024 hurricane season is likely to be well above average, with between 17 and 25 named storms. The forecast calls for as many as 13 hurricanes and four major hurricanes.

An average Atlantic hurricane season produces 14 named storms, seven of them hurricanes and three major hurricanes.

A resident carries wood to cover his house's windows in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People disassemble a beach bar's awning in preparation for Hurricane Beryl, in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

People walk off the beach after attending a religious gathering in Bridgetown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. Hurricane Beryl strengthened into a Category 4 storm as it approaches the southeast Caribbean. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)

Sailboats line up to enter a marina ahead of the arrival of Hurricane Beryl in Speightstown, Barbados, Sunday, June 30, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Hurricane Beryl's winds batter Carlisle Bay in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)

Hurricane Beryl's winds batter Carlisle Bay in Bridgetown, Barbados, Monday, July 1, 2024. (AP Photo/Ricardo Mazalan)