It must be great to be Joe Sakic.
He’s a hero in Denver for helping lead the Colorado Avalanche to two Stanley Cups, he won the Hart Trophy as the NHL MVP in 2001, he’s destined to be a Hall Of Famer next year when he’s eligible for the first time, and now he’s got some golf swagger added to his résumé with a special twist.
Sakic was participating in this weekend’s American Century Celebrity Golf Championship in Lake Tahoe when he teed it up at the par-3, 167 yard 17th hole where he then proceeded to sink a hole-in-one that not only got him some extra bragging rights as a golfer, but helped him win $1 million at the charity event.
To help you golfers out there feel bad about your own games, Sakic used an 8-iron to sink the shot.
Sakic is so smooth he didn’t even know it went in right away. High-fiving the gallery after knowing it was in is a nice touch. While Sakic gets to take home $500,000 for the shot, the other half-million goes to Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation for cancer research.
Sakic spoke about the amazing shot afterwards with NBC’s Jimmy Roberts.
Hockey players and golf are about as natural a pairing as it gets in sports and to see Sakic use a fair amount of skill and luck is no surprise either. It’s easy to see why Avs fans call him “Super Joe” now.