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There was a bloke called Murdaca doing something special this past weekend.
So it was a little odd that the hallowed halls of The Grange Golf Club were abuzz with something other than Masters conversation.
Yet, that’s exactly – well partly at least – what happened with an extraordinary performance by another of the famous Adelaide club’s favourite sons, Jack Paisley.
Moments after the club’s amateur gun Antonio Murdaca completed his first round at Augusta National on Firiday, the Grange played host to the South Australian Junior Pro-Am.
And if it’s remotely possible, Paisley, the club’s trainee pro, did something truly almost as rare.
Paisley, 21, teamed up with youngsters Riley Semovic, Emily Dunbar and Sarah Wallace in an ambrose event and, let’s just politely say, they weren’t needed on a couple of holes.
Paisley stepped up to the West Course’s 125m eighth hole with the pin just over the front bunker and nailed a 52-degree wedge so nicely that he jokingly declared it in to his new young mates as soon as he hit the ball.
“It didn’t move off the hole, but we couldn’t see it land over the bunker, but I was a bit of a smart a—e and called that it was in,” he said.
“Then we wandered up and it was. It was pretty cool, especially for the girls who were ecstatic because they hadn’t seen a hole-in-one live before.”
But the youngsters’ joy had barely begun.
Paisley was in a quandary as he stood on the 160m 14th tee, his club of choice – a 7-iron – not in his bag because he’d been practising with it in the pro shop before his round and forgot to put it back in his bag.
“So I had to hit a hard eight-iron It just hit the middle slope and spun back straight into the hole,” he said.
“This time we could see it and the marshals were on the hole taking photos of all the groups, so everyone went crazy … (and) I did a bit of a fist pump.
“I’d had two in 12 years and then I’d had the next two in two in one-and-a-half hours,” he joked.
But wait, as they say in the classics, there’s more …
Paisley also made an individual eagle on the par-five fifth hole with a driver and a three-wood to inside a metre on his way to a score he could only estimate (given the format) at being 10 under.
From the team’s perspective, a nett score of 51.5 was enough to nab the day’s top prize and the team was thrilled all over again.
“They certainly had a day out,” said Paisley, who played six years as a junior at Sanctuary Lakes in Melbourne’s west before deciding that Adelaide was the place for him and his golf.
Paisley was at trainee school in Queensland today, the last time he attends that class with his apprenticeship almost complete.
And he can’t wait to test his game on the pro tour when he gets a chance.
“I’d love to be a touring pro. Loved my trainee time and The Grange, but it’s been my dream since I was three – ever since I picked up my first club.
“So these (aces) are something really positive and it has given me a kick-start towards it, I hope.”
But for now, the magic of his three-eagle, two-ace round is still washing over him.
“People can’t believe it. I had a few friends google the stats of doing that twice in a round and they said it was one in 50 million, so it was pretty cool.
“It feels like you’ve done something nobody else has, but I don’t think it has sunk in yet.”
Paisley and Murdaca exchanged light-hearted barbs on FaceBook and email about who owned the weekend focus.
But Paisley was quick to say all the publicity was just “good for The Grange”.
“We all look up to Murdaca. We all like to think we helped him get there and it’s great that he made it.
“I just told him I didn’t plan to take his spotlight away – it just happened,” Paisley joked.