It was a calm day in late October—the sun was shining and the sky was clear. It was a beautiful day for the sport of golf.

AMSA 8th grader Kevin Macauley stepped onto the tee box at No. 3, a 163-yard par 3 at Black Swan Country Club in Georgetown. He had a million thoughts going through his mind. He eventually narrowed them down to three: What club? How much power? Drop it on the green and check it or hit it short and run it toward the hole?

This wasn’t any ordinary tournament, either. It was the Massachusetts State High School Golf Tournament. He had to make the right choices. He had one opportunity to get it right.

After what felt like hours, he finally pulled a 5-iron out of his bag. He figured it was the best club to clear the water. Kevin took a few practice swings and then took a deep breath. He swung as hard as he could and watched the ball soar and slowly descend near the hole.

But Kevin couldn’t see where the ball landed exactly. He saw that the ball landed near the hole and he heard lots of cheering from the crowd so he knew that he’d hit a good shot. So he packed the club back in his bag and started walking toward the green.

Just one problem—he couldn’t find the ball. Finally, Kevin realized where the ball had to be.

It was in the bottom of the cup. He’d hit a hole-in-one.

“I couldn’t believe what happened,” he said. “I was so happy.”

Kevin eventually finished the round well into triple digits and far from the top of the leaderboard. But that didn’t matter. The hole-in-one was everything—a highlight of a lifetime for a middle school student and underdog who was cut from the team last year and who stepped onto the course at Black Swan as the lowest seed on the AMSA squad.

“It’s kind of a Cinderella story,” said AMSA physical education teacher Dan Amaral, who coaches the golf team. “This was a kid who got cut last year because we had an older team and he came back and showed he deserved to be here.”

The Eagles finished eighth out of 11 teams, but that didn’t matter either. In the clubhouse after the round, it was all about Kevin—in a funny way.

“We decided ahead of time we weren’t going to bring it up at all,” said Mr. Amaral, who convinced the other members of the team to treat Kevin like a Major League hitter who had just hit his first career home run.

When Kevin burst into the clubhouse saying, “Guys, you’ll never believe this,” they were ready for him.

“No, you didn’t,” they shouted when Kevin said he’d hit a hole-in-one.

“No, really,” Kevin repeated.

Mr. Amaral, meanwhile, was filming the exchange with his cell phone as the other members of the team kept telling Kevin to quit kidding around.

“Then we all started yelling and jumped on top of him,” Mr. Amaral said. “It was the best individual [sports] moment I’ve seen [in the five years] I’ve been here.”

It was pretty cool for Kevin, as well.

“The team was happy for me and jealous, too,” Kevin said. His family then joined in the celebration.

Kevin has been golfing since age 7, but this was his first ace—and the first time he’d even come close to hitting one.

“He’s only in 8th grade,” Mr. Amaral said. “He’s eventually going to be a big part of this team.”

Kevin just needs to get more consistent, said Mr. Amaral, who added that Kevin has a few “holes” in his swing that need fixing.

“He’ll get it straightened out,” Mr. Amaral said.

In the meantime, he has quite a story to tell.