Submitted photo: Roger Brown of Fort Dodge takes the ball out of the hole after his ace last week at the Fort Dodge Country Club’s par-3 11th.

Roger Brown is a man who knows what he likes both on and off the golf course.

Brown is a life-long Fort Dodger. He’s been working at Humes Distributing in Fort Dodge for over 40 years, and he’s been playing at the Fort Dodge Country Club since he was a kid.

When Brown recently aced the 11th hole at the FDCC, it marked the fourth hole-in-one of his career with the same club — his trusty 8-iron. A remarkable feat, no doubt, but Brown had to clarify one point about the rarity of replicating this accomplishment so many times.

“To be fair, those four shots span 38 years,” Brown laughed, “because I’m still using the same irons I bought back in 1986.”

The clubs — a set of Ping Eye 2 Beryllium Copper irons — were purchased by Brown at the Spencer Country Club while on a golf trip with area legend and four-time Bishop Garrigan state champion Gregg Winkel of Algona nearly four decades ago.

“I bought them right off the rack,” Brown said.

That summer, Brown won his first city golf championship with the new irons. Drivers, woods, wedges, putters and even hybrids have come and gone since, but the Ping Eye 2s?

“I have confidence in them, still to this day,” said Brown, who carries a 5 GHIN handicap. “They work for me. They’ve always worked. Why change? Even as I’ve gotten older and lost distance, I still hit them great — as long as I swing it right.”

The set is a 1-iron through a lob wedge.

“I did lose the sand wedge, though,” Brown added. “I laugh when I’m playing with anyone under 40, because I can tell them, ‘my irons are older than you.'”

The 8-iron, in particular, has produced many memorable moments. And all four aces with that club were at the FDCC.

“I could tell this one had a chance,” Brown said of the shot last week — hole-in-one No. 4 — at the Country Club’s par-3 11th. “It landed about 10 feet to the left and started to trickle down toward the hole. I threw my arms up and almost called it before it went in.”

Brown was playing with Ned Palmer, Ed Casady and Tom Rabbitt. He shot a 75 that day.

“There are about 10 of us who get together and play every Thursday and have a great time,” Brown said. “I also go out and play with my wife, Jackie, who was with me five years ago when I had my last (8-iron ace) on No. 8 (at the FDCC).”

The 64-year-old Brown has recorded a hole-in-one six times total in his 50-plus year golf career.

“The first was on No. 14 at Lakeside when I was a student at Iowa Central,” Brown said. “The second should come with an asterisk. It was in 1983, and I was working at Lakeside. I teed a ball up on the (par-4) first hole and made (the 350-yard drive). But I didn’t actually play a round that day.”

The initial 8-iron ace came in 1986 on the 8th hole at the FDCC.

Brown laughed as he reeled off the details of shots and rounds from decades ago.

“It drives my wife crazy,” Brown admitted. “I can remember all of the specifics when it comes to golf, but I’m not even sure I could tell you what I had for dinner last night.”

Brown’s loyalty to both Fort Dodge and the sport blossomed at a very young age.

“I was probably 8 or 9 (years old) when I started playing golf,” said Brown, a 1978 Fort Dodge Senior High graduate. “Dad (legendary Hall of Fame Messenger sports editor Bob Brown) would drop me off every morning (at the FDCC) before he went to work, because it was still an evening paper at the time. I’d basically stay on the course until dark. Dean and Rorie Tuel would always give me a ride home.

“I was just so lucky at the time, and still am to be playing with family and friends at the (Country) Club in my hometown today.”