Official Almanac Register of Holes-in-One

Today is the 40th anniversary of my hole-in-one. READ THE OAKEY GOLF CLUB STORY

Tell us your hole-in-one yarn: the story of your shot, or one you have seen (in the comments section below).

Comments

  1. Callum O'Connor says

    Banked an absolute belter at Rye 3 years ago.
    And to make it even more impressive, I went around the windmill and not through it like the five year olds in front of me did.

  2. Royal Marrickville, 3rd hole, about 145m. wed night after work chook run. It comes off flush and I shout – for the first time in my life, like Kim Hughes sledging Chris Old at Lords – “I reckon that’s in”. Sure enough, it draws gently into the wind… and disappears over the mound. We walk up and my ball’s not on the green and everyone assumes it has run over the back. So I check in the hole, and there she is.

    Played the next 5 holes in about 15 over due to adrenalin. we get up to the 9th, a beautiful 160+ m off a real elevated tee, the wind now blowing a gale. I scorch a punched 7-iron and it tracks the hole the whole way down. Land about 3 feet short, takes a slight break, and lips out. My brother, by now aggravated, picks up his 7 iron, says anyone can do that, smashes a high flier, which, too, lands about 3 feet short, breaks with his draw, and lips out and sits the other side of the hole.

    Could have been two holes in one on the same day, two brothers holing out on the same hole etc etc. But it is a better story this way. One of my mates won’t play with us any more, he can’t compete against guys who go triiple bogey-eagle-triple bogey. he is soft/lacking in imagination.

    (I did hole in one the 9th a few years later, but it was less spectacular, but, again, I declared it in off the stick. Eerie, that.)

  3. I’m absolutely with you on that Peter.

    After Oct 19, move forward to Oct 26. Same group of boys, same hole. I lipped out. The ninth had a sand green so you could see the ball’s track.

  4. A mate of mine regularly holed out from the bunkers. I discovered years later he was using a hand wedge. Has there ever been a hole in one from a hand wood?

  5. First hole-in-one was at Albury golf club around at the six toll from memory. Skinny and a dine ran a good 70 foot straight into the hole. It was one of those days and 47 points off a 15 handicap. Second was at Royal Belconnen which was a 184m hole hat usualy had a right to left cross win. Hit a looping big draw with a four iron. The third one was also at Belconnen when playing a practice round. I that by himself waiting for couple of social players to walk off the green it and i hit a 9 iron straight in the cup. One of the blokes saw it and then walked straight off leaving me to call mate who laughed and said it was bullshit as no one had seen it. Also holed a second shot on a par five for an albatross in a practice round again without any celebratory witnesses.

  6. My one and only was at Royal & Ancient Wattle Park just over 20 years ago.

    As a cruel twist of fate I was hitting into the sun late in the day on the last hole (you could just about reach it with a hand wood Dips). It was impossible for anyone on the tee to see the ball so had no idea until someone who’d just completed their round casually mentioned it on my way past.

    Kind of sucked the excitement out of it.

  7. Peter Fuller says

    I fear that I may have inspired this thread, as I responded to John’s revisiting his post from almost three years ago, about his hole in one.
    Mine is proof that this frustrating game allows thrilling moments for even the lamest of players. I came to the game late, as apart from a handful of casual rounds, I virtually hadn’t played until my early retirement. In the fifteen years since then I have played regularly, having a round most weeks. May 2006, playing at my regular course, Ringwood (public), I hit my tee shot at the 145 metre 5th straight. Looking into a weak sun, I thought it had gone through the green into the rear bunker, and was looking there and in the surrounding rough, when one of the blokes I was playing with saw a ball in the hole and asked me if it was mine. The anti-climax of my not having witnessed my triumph was matched by the nonchalant reaction of the fellow in the shop, when I informed him of my great achievement. I do notice that some years on, they now have an honour board in the shop. Alas, unless lightning strikes twice and I repeat the dose, I am not going to feature on it.
    Like Peter Warrington, the rest of that round, like most of my others, was characterised by the unfairness of playing with me as I get more hits than everyone else.

  8. Justin Conlan says

    Late nineties division 4 or 5 pennant golf in Ballarat District – Sunday playing for Ballan – dusted off the hangover with a steady front nine at Skipton against a favourite foe Cec from Creswick. Cracks and crickets a s big as your hand

    4 up with 4 to play Cec teed off and put it 20 feet from the pin , I teed off and knocked it infront of a couple of team mates . I graciously told cec he could have his putt.

  9. I was teaching a class of Year 12 students in their very first golf session. We were on the back 9 at Canberra International Golf Centre, and I was teed up for the demo. Gave the kiddies a quick chat about grip, stance and other very important golf things, then turned and hit for the first shot of the day. The ball bounced twice and went straight in. And that’s how you do it, kiddies.

    Same course, two years later, playing with Yr 12s again. Two asked me if I had ever hit a hole in one, so I regaled them with the story of past glory. Then proceeded to the next hole, teed off and holed out. And that’s how you do it, kiddies.

  10. Personally I have never got close to a hole in one in 40+ years of playing the infernal game. But I was witness to a classic when I played at Mt Lofty Golf Club in the Adelaide Hills in my 20’s. Was playing in the Saturday comp with my dad and 2 of his mates – all in their fifties. The whole course is short but very hilly and tight – full of creeks and trees. The 3rd is a medium long par 3 (maybe 170 – yards or metres back then?) and I reckon I used to mostly hit a 4 iron (would be a 4 wood now). The third slopes wickedly from right to left with no fairway, only scrubby rough, until the landing area maybe 20 yards in front of the green. There is a steep bank to the right of the green, and another falling away to the left of the green, which sits on a small plateau. The preferred shot is right of the green in the safe grass area to the right, with the hope you get a good kick in with the slope. Left is a disaster with the bank sending the ball scooting away across the second fairway, and potentially out of bounds when the fairways are dry in summer.
    There was a handy older bloke, a left hander called Doug Blair, who takes a fairway wood and hits it flush in the hosel where the shaft joins the (then persimmon) wood head. The ball screams off never more than a foot off the ground, bumping through the scrubby bush and rocks well to the right of the green. Up near the green it takes a Shane Warne Gatting ball turn out of the rough and shoots down the right hand bank at a hundred miles an hour, at right angles to the intended line of flight to the pin, heading inevitably for out of bounds on the left. It hits the pin flush, flies six foot in the air, and plops straight back down into the cup.
    I am dumbstruck and don’t know what to say. The golfer and the other 2 gents with fading eyesight all ask “did you see where that ended up?”
    Long pause…………………yeah………………..its in the hole. They still didn’t believe me until they fished it out of the hole. I think Doug was almost embarrassed about owning up to it when he went back to the clubrooms after the round. He didn’t know whether to be proud or ashamed.
    Its how many not how.

  11. saintly(hawky) says

    I got close when I was a junior at Townsville playing the 12th a par 3 with my faithful ‘pgf little slammer’, the group in front saw it roll to the flag and it off centre and rolled to 18 inches. But at Royal Bulimba on the 9th of their par 3 course, summer of 12/13, classic couldn’t see the bottom of the pin from the tee. Used a 3/4 swing 9 iron and it bounced on the front and we thought it had run over the back didn’t walk to the hole and look first. After combing the back of the green my mate picks it out of the hole.

  12. Yeah Tony Robb, the albatross is the holy grail. Best shot I ever hit was a 5-wood at Narooma (the back par 5 that doglegs around the lake), had to be 230+, it just sat above the hole the whole way and dropped, and trickled a few feet and sat around 2 feet short. Made sure I pocketed the eagle!

    (Tried it many times since, they go left, they go to the right, Mitchell Johnson etc etc)

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