MC&E Opens With a Bang as Epes CEO Records Ace
SAN DIEGO — Al Bodford was grinning from ear to ear as he approached a group of mostly strangers waiting for an elevator at the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina Oct. 4.
“Anybody else here get a hole-in-one today?” he asked.
Talk about a rhetorical question.
Bodford, chairman and CEO of Epes Carriers of Greensboro, N.C., aced the 126-yard par-3 11th hole at Rancho Bernardo Inn Golf Course with a 9-iron to highlight the ATA Annual Golf Tournament. Bodford bought Epes in 1987 and now Epes Carriers ranks No. 78 on the Transport Topics Top 100 For-Hire Carriers in the United States and Canada.
Bodford, who describes himself as a “serious” golfer, said it was his third hole-in-one. “My last one was about seven years ago,” he said. “It’s like a seven-year itch.”
Bodford said he hit the ball short of the pin and it rolled toward the cup. “The three guys who were with me said it went in the hole, but I was not as excited at first, because I thought it might have gone behind the hole,” said Bodford, whose home course is Sedgefield Country Club in Greensboro, North Carolina. “I didn’t get excited til I saw the ball at the bottom of the hole.”
Bodford’s team shot a 12-under-par 60. (Check back later for additional tournament results.)
With three holes-in-one under his belt, the 72-year-old Bodford has his eyes set on another objective: Shooting his age. “That’s one of my goals,” he said.
