The Face of the Ace

By Erik Haselius

After nailing three aces at Grand Slam Coon Rapids, Shawn Brown became the first player in Putt Craft history to eclipse 100 aces for his career. It took him 41 total events.

He ended the event with 101 total aces, which got us thinking, “Who is the face of the Ace in Putt Craft?” If someone asked you who the Ace King of Putt Craft is, who is the first person that comes to mind?

Is it Shawn Brown, who has the most aces overall, and just so happened to sink the 1,000th ace earlier this year at Veterans Memorial in Richfield? 

Is it Matt Roalstad, who set the all-time record with 10 aces in an event at Golf Zone, back in March of 2023? Roalstad also holds the record for consecutive aces with five.

Maybe it’s Anthony Dunkel, who gets some of the more unorthodox aces, such as his back-door ace at Golf Zone last year on hole 17, or his funky double-bank bounce off the dolphin at the Ace Course, back in early December? 

What about Joel Brown, who just might have the most impressive ace in all of Putt Craft, with the beautiful double-eagle ace on hole 9 at Centennial Lakes, back in the summer of 2022? 

Then again, Kathleen Malone set the initial record of aces in a round, with seven at the Ace Course.

Could it be Erik Haselius, who recently tied Matt Roalstad for most events with six or more aces(8); and who is only 14 aces behind Shawn Brown, but has played in 17 less events?

Could Brady Storhoff be the one, after having the most aces at low-ace courses, such as Lilli Putt, Eagle Lake, and The Midwest Golf Dome? 

And don’t forget about Jeff Woodfill, who averages the most aces per event, at 4.57, but has primarily played at high-ace courses. 

There are lots of good choices here, but maybe we missed a few.  Tom Loftus went his first 28 events without shooting six or more aces, but now has back-to-back events with nine and seven respectively.  Kameron Haselius, who has come on strong in the back half of this season, has four straight events of over six aces which has vaulted him into 5th place on the career ace leaderboard. Haselius now has 30 aces in the past four events.  His 75 aces trail Zack Haselius by one (76), Matt Roalstad by ten (85), Erik Haselius by twelve (87), and Shawn Brown by twenty six (101).

It’s possible that no two answers would be the same; but with all these candidates, any one of them would be a good pick to represent the ‘Face of the Ace’.