Who says holes-in-one are rare?
Fresh from Richard Green’s highlight reel albatross on Wednesday, a spate of “1s” have been written down on scorecards across Australia.
But two particular outbreaks are worthy of special attention – by anyone’s measure.
On Sunday at Latrobe Golf Club in suburban Melbourne, Tony Tarrant strode to the 16th tee and struck his second career hole-in-one.
Neither he nor his mate Rod Cahill are blessed with perfect vision these days, but their threesome companion Gary Mann insisted it went in the cup.
Mann then watched in total disbelief as Cahill followed up with his second career ace – on the next swing.
“I take my glasses off to swing, but knew I’d hit a pretty decent shot and was sort of clambering around to put them back on but I couldn’t see it,” Tarrant lamented.
“Gary was saying they were in, and they both looked good shots, but you never really think about that happening.
“But we walked up there and there was no ball on the green … and Rod sort of crept over there and yelled out to me they were both in the cup!
“It’s unbelievable, really, when you think about it.”
Cahill, a golfer for nearly three decades, holed out for the first time on the club’s ninth hole in December.
Now, he theorises, it might become a habit.
“I was thinking I might retire the six-iron because I’ve had them both with that stick … but I’m feeling pretty confident and I reckon I might rack up a couple more this year,” he said with tongue firmly in cheek.
Cahill, clearly revelling in his new-found stardom, said his boss at Total Eden had asked him whether or not he’d need a day off to tend to his “media commitments” after appearing on Melbourne radio on Monday.
“I’m just milking it for all it’s worth mate – that sort of thing doesn’t happen too often.”
And while that’s reputedly a one in 17 million chance, we are still trying to figure out the odds of what has happened at Cromer Golf Club in Sydney’s northern suburbs.
Last Wednesday, in the same club competition on the course near Narrabeen Lake, no fewer than four aces were recorded – on four different par-threes.
Cromer golf operations manager Scott Cain said the club was scouring the record books worldwide to see if such a feat had ever previously occurred.
Club stalwart Jack Ireland nailed his ace on the 155m uphill second hole; Russell Lumb on the short 102m fourth; Craig Plimmer on the 142m ninth and then Chris Michael on the 142m 15th.
But wait, there’s more.
Cromer might have to rebrand itself as Australia’s hole-in-one haven with another two aces since that historic afternoon with another “1” in Saturday’s competition and yet another in today’s event – a total of six in six days!
Get out there and swing away – it just might be catching!
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