Mike DuBois never saw the ball go in the hole, but he could tell from the commotion on the 17th green at the Augusta Country Club last week that something good had happened.

DuBois, who lives in Benton, was playing in the 42nd annual United Way of Kennebec Valley Golf Tournament with three of his fellow Central Maine Power Company employees. His first-ever hole in one will be tough to duplicate since this one netted him a new car.

Additional Photos

HERE’S YOUR KEYS: Mike DuBois of Benton, left, poses with Steve Shuman of Charlie’s Motor Mall after DuBois won an electric car in a tournament last week at the Augusta Country Club in Manchester. Contributed photo

So what type of vehicle does a CMP employee win? Why an all-electric one of course. DuBois has yet to drive the 2012 Mitsubishi I-Miev he won. Verifying the particulars through the insurance company that underwrites the vehicles could take another month according to Steve Shuman of Charlie’s Motor Mall, the company that sponsored the hole in one contest.

DuBois, who was playing with Sue Clary, Dan Littlefield and Peggy Cummings, knew he hit a good shot from the elevated tee box 150 yards from the hole.

“I had a draw with a pitching wedge right off the pin,” he said. “It landed 18 inches short and followed the slope. No one could really see it.”

The hole in one was verified by volunteer witnesses near the green. There was also a witness on the tee box, but DuBois said she was reading a book and not watching the shots.

“What if I just tell you I got one?” DuBois joked to her before his shot. “She said ‘I’ll know,’ she came out of that chair like lightning.”

DuBois, 47, didn’t start playing golf until about 14 years ago when his brother talked him and his father into playing one day. To that point his recreation had been confined primarily to hunting and fishing.

“The next day we bought memberships, we bought clubs and proceeded to play seven days a week,” he said.

The 9-handicapper plays out of Cedar Springs Golf Course in Albion and had flirted many times with holes in one, coming as close as 1 inch on one occasion and lipping out of the hole on another. He nearly won a car a month ago at the tournament at the Waterville Country Club.

“It would have been a two-car year,” he said.

As for the car he won, so far he only has an Augusta Country Club shirt for being closest to the pin. DuBois is 6-foot-2 and might have a hard time squeezing in the tiny car which has a range of 100 miles before it needs to be recharged. He does have a 19-year-old daughter who he says drives a “thousand dollar piece of junk.”

The car is valued at around $30,000 and Shuman said what DuBois does with it after he takes ownership is his business.

“It’s a new technology that is starting to come around now,” Shuman said of the Mitsubishi. “For someone who commutes every day to work it’s ideal.”

A 24-year CMP employee, DuBois supervises in the line department out of Fairfield and Augusta. The company, he said, started an electric car program earlier this year and has rotated a couple of vehicles through management. It also purchased an all electric van for security detail in Augusta. Still for someone who spends a fair time heading north to hunt and fish, this vehicle might not suit his needs.

“I’m a four-wheel drive the bigger the better kind of guy,” he said.

Gary Hawkins — 621-5638

ghawkins@centralmaine.com

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