Fowler, Ishikawa add to rising number of aces

— -- GAINESVILLE, Va. -- Golf is not a game of perfect.

Those are the words of famed sports psychologist Bob Rotella, immortalized as the title of a book which attempts to explain to golfers that the game can't be conquered; it can't be resolved to the point of perfection.

With apologies to the good doctor, I beg to differ.

Golf is usually not a game of perfect. Almost never, really. But every once in a while, the perfect swing into the perfect breeze can produce a shot that lands at the perfect angle and creates a perfect spin for a perfect result.

It's called a hole-in-one, and even neophyte golfers who don't know an albatross from an aardvark understand the magnitude of golf's rare version of perfection.

Golf on the PGA Tour this season has nearly been more perfect than ever before.

During the first round of the Quicken Loans National on Thursday, Ryo Ishikawa and Rickie Fowler each hit a perfect golf shot, posting a 1 to their respective scorecards.

That brought the total number of aces to 38 for the 2014-15 season, with eight-and-three-quarter tournaments left to be played.

If that sounds like a lot, it is.

Last season, there were just 17 holes-in-one in PGA Tour events. The year before? Thirty. This is already the most since there were also 38 back in 2010 and there's an excellent chance that the modern record of 44 in 1994 will be surpassed by season's end.

All of which should lead to one burning question: Why?

"I don't know," Ishikawa said with a laugh when asked to explain the phenomenon. "I don't know why there's so many holes-in-one. I think because of the Quicken Loans. I think [it's a] good system."

Ah, yes -- the Quicken Loans system.

In a story that might sound like part conspiracy theory and part advertisement, this week's title sponsor has also sponsored a year-long promotion: For every hole-in-one, the company pays a contest winner's mortgage for an entire year.

"There's nothing more exciting in sports than a hole-in-one, except the fact that through our sweepstakes, we are changing the lives of golf fans," Quicken Loans CEO Bill Emerson said. "Taking a year off of paying their mortgage allows our winners to pay off student loans, save for their children's college funds or take a dream vacation."

Contrary to any conspiracy theories, this year's aces aren't being carded on holes playing to executive course length or into greens funneled toward holes.

Ishikawa used an 8-iron from 180 yards on Robert Trent Jones Golf Club's fourth hole that sucked back toward the cup and found the bottom. Fowler hit a choked-down 7-iron from 176 yards on the ninth that he called a "great swing."

"I think that was a better shot," Ishikawa admitted of the other ace. "Better than me, obviously."

There isn't anything better than perfect, though; there isn't any score better than what Ishikawa and Fowler and 36 other players have now posted on the PGA Tour this season.

There also isn't any great explanation.

There isn't any reasonable rationale for why par-3 tee shots are finding the hole at a higher rate than ever before. No great justification for why more aces have been happening.

All we know is that they are.

Golf is not a game of perfect.

Every once in a while, though, it can be. This season on the PGA Tour, those instances are happening nearly more often than ever before.