Child’s Play

Jake Paine is only 3, but he knows all about Tiger Woods.

And Monday afternoon, Paine hit a shot that would have made Woods proud.

Paine hit his “Snoopy” driver on the 66-yard sixth hole at Lake Forest Golf and Practice Course and the ball rolled into the cup for a hole in one.

“We have a computer golf game with Tiger Woods playing golf, and when Jake hits his driver, we call it a Tiger shot,” said Jake’s father, Bill, a teacher at Bergeson Elementary in Laguna Niguel whose family lives in Rancho Santa Margarita.

Bill Paine was playing with Jake and another son, Jordan, 7.

“Once [the ball] hit the fringe of the green and took a turn toward the pin, I thought it had a chance,” Bill Paine said. “It rolled about 25 feet, glanced off the pin and dropped in. I think anyone within two miles could have heard me yell, ‘It’s a hole in one!’ ”

The Guinness Sports Record Book published in 1997 lists the youngest player to get a hole in one as being 5.

Bill Paine said he earlier had to receive permission for Jake to play on the course.

Paine said he bought Jake the three-club Snoopy golf set--a driver, wedge and putter--about a year ago, after Jake broke some plastic clubs hitting driving-range balls.

“He’s a lefty, but fortunately, I was able to find a left-handed set of clubs,” Bill Paine said. “The driver is about 30 inches long, and he’s about 38 inches tall.”

Jake shot a 48 Monday on the nine-hole, par-29 course.