When you’ve got entire summer days, a group of your best buds, and the ability to play 18-hole rounds of golf for five dollars a pop, you just might find yourself making wickedly fun memories and acing par-3’s before long.

Just ask Austin Ellison, who found all that out through access to the WA Golf Youth on Course program. Austin is a 14-year-old freshman at Issaquah High School and an all-around athlete with experience in soccer, skiing and, more recently, wrestling. Golf’s long been on his list, too, but it was that YOC membership that allowed him to become increasingly competitive through several long, fun days at Twin Rivers Golf Course in Fall City.

“I remember just how fun it was to just be out there,” Austin said of those days on the course with friends. “We felt like professionals. We could just get dropped off there by our parents and golf all day and just have a great time.”

Initially, high school golf wasn’t at the forefront of Austin’s mind. But as his rounds piled up, so did his motivation to be the featured player of any outing.

“I always want to win, I always want to be the best,” he said.

As he got better, Austin began taking lessons, and played more courses throughout the area, in the hope of sharpening his game to earn a spot on the Issaquah team. This past summer, he spent time at a house in Suncadia Resort, which has a golf course where his YOC membership was useful.

“It was really incredible to get all those rounds at that nice course and put in so much practice before the season started,” he said. “I think that was super-duper awesome.”

And it led to him successfully making the team. On Sept. 23, playing a round at Snoqualmie Falls GC, Austin accomplished what many golfers dream of – hitting a hole-in-one. He didn’t even expect to play that day, but his coach found him and his friends a time slot.

The ace happened on the course’s third hole, with Austin’s trusty 9-iron, from 125 yards away.

“It probably drew back about 20 yards, landed a foot from the hole and went right in,” Austin recalled of the exciting moment. “I remember running up to the cup to check it, and it was the fastest I’ve ever moved in my life.”

He even got to share the moment with one of the friends he originally played those initial Youth on Course rounds with at Twin Rivers.

“It was all a full-circle moment with all that,” he said. “It was really cool to have him there and my other friends and everyone to celebrate with me.”

Celebrate they did, through a round of ice-cold sodas from the clubhouse.

On Austin’s tab, of course.

WA Golf Youth on Course gives golfers age 6-18 access to play $5 rounds of golf at more than 85 participating courses in Washington and Northern Idaho, and thousands of other courses across the U.S., Canada, and Australia. A $25 annual membership can have your youth golfing some of the best (and easily accessible) courses in the state and beyond for just $5. Click here to join the WA Golf Youth on Course program. And click here to donate to the program and ensure the future of the game.