Brian Matusz has managed to hit a hole-in-one as both a righty and a lefty
Mickey Mantle hit 536 home runs as a switch-hitter. Carlos Baerga hit a home run from both sides of the plate in the same inning. Blue Jays reliever Pat Venditte can even pitch with both hands. All impressive feats, no doubt -- but they weren't thinking quite big enough. Orioles reliever Brian Matusz, on the other hand, dreamed of going beyond the realm of switch-hitters and switch-pitchers to become ... a switch-golfer.
Matusz, who throws left-handed, has long been a fan of the game, but he initially learned how to play with right-handed clubs -- mostly because he had to share clubs with his brother. Still, he was pretty good. Six years ago, at a course in Palm Springs, Calif., he hit his first hole-in-one at a bachelor party with a group of his friends: Luke, Logan, Matt and Kevin on the 17th hole (156 yards). The group was so excited they ended up skipping the 18th hole for celebratory drinks. Still, Matusz felt like something was missing.
"A couple years later, I switched to left-handed, I felt like I wasn't hitting the ball hard enough," Matusz said.
Using his buddy Matt's clubs, Matusz made the switch pretty easily. And a few weeks ago, on the 17th hole again with his buddy Taylor, Matusz hit a ball right at the flag that one-hopped into the hole. This time, he used a pitching wedge from 145 yards out.
"I shot an 82 that day, which was my best round," Matusz said of that fateful day in Scottsdale, Ariz. "I was thinking, this has to be pretty rare. [I] went online and searched and only found a couple people. I didn't know until Golf Digest wrote an article and checked their database and said I was the 20th person to do it."