How rare is a hole-in-one on a par-4 hole?

So rare that it's been done only once on the PGA Tour, by Andrew Magee in the 1994 Phoenix Open, at the TPC Scottsdale's 17th hole.

So rare that the odds have been computeed as high as 10 million-to-one by U.S. Hole In One (which insures organizations who stage hole-in-one contests at golf tournaments).

Golf Digest has pegged the odds at 1 million-to-one for a skilled player.

An ace at a par-3 hole is a mere 12,0000-to-1 for a handicap player and 3,000-to-1 for a PGA Tour player.

Talan Harlow, a University of North Florida junior and a Ponte Vedra Beach resident, beat those odds Monday at the TPC Sawgrass Dye's Valley Course.

Harlow, 21, took his Callaway FTI driver with an 8.5 loft and a triple-X shaft and smacked a drive at the 322-yard par-4 seventh hole into the cup for what is believed to be the first reported ace at a par-4 hole at either the Valley or the Players Stadium Course.

TPC Sawgrass general manage Bill Hughes said there might have been an ace at the hole years ago, but it wasn't reported to the pro staff. The TPC maintains plaques in the clubhouse honoring holes-in-one at the eight par-3 holes at the Valley and Stadium Courses.

"We've all talked and people seem to remember something about a hole in one there in the past," Hughes said. "But we don't have any records of it now. It's an unbelievable accomplishment by that young man."

The pin was cut in the front-middle of the green but hidden by the large mound on the left side of the hole. Harlow had to shape his tee shot between two trees and hit a draw.

"I was trying to run something up onto the right side of the green," he said. "I've hit 3-wood on the green there before but you're never thinking of hitting it in the hole, even on a short par-4."

Here's what may be the most amazing part of the shot: Harlow appears to have slam-dunked his No. 2 Bridgestone E7 ball into the hole.

Since Harlow and playing partners Graydon Kent, Sam Ohno and Logan Membrino couldn't see the hole from the tee, they assumed he had blown the shot over the green. After looking for a few seconds behind the green and not finding a ball, Kent went to the hole and saw the ball resting inside -- with the left side of the hole considerably damaged.

"I guess you never think to look in the hole first if you didn't actually see it go in," said Harlow. "But Graydon went over and said, 'it's in the hole.' I said, 'no way.' He kept telling me to come over and look and I kept saying 'no way.'"

Way.

"With the way the hole looked, it must have gone in on the fly," Harlow said.

The foursome was playing nine holes of match-play. Harlow said he shot 2-over 38, and was on his third nine of the day.

"I played 18 earlier and there were some things on my swing I'm trying to change," he said. "Then I went back out with the guys, who are friends of my little brother."

Seems as if Harlow doesn't need to change a thing, at least off the tee.

Harlow and his family moved to the area nearly three years ago and live off the 18th hole of the Valley Course. He played on the first golf team at Wissahickon High School in Ambler, Pa., to reach a regional tournament.

Harlow is a finance and economics major at UNF.

Greg Esterhai, owner of U.S. Hole-in-One, said he's heard of only one ace at a par-4 hole in more than 100,000 tournaments in 14 years his company has insured.