Posted on 09/05/2004 12:33:04 AM PDT by Bandaneira
THREE SINK A GOLF MIRACLE
LIAM HOULIHAN 05Sep04 Herald Sun, Australia
EVERY golfer dreams of hitting a hole in one - even though the chances of getting one are 13,000 to one.
A freak occurrence last Sunday saw three players at a Melbourne course each achieve the feat within 10 minutes.
The Sandhurst Club, Skye is now applying to have the amazing treble recognised as a first by Guinness World Records.
A yell of triumph was heard soon after 2pm after Ivor Halford sank the day's first on the 178m 15th hole.
Within minutes there were more cheers - this time on the 137m 13th hole as Don Curtain did the same.
Then Nicky Eller, in a group following Mr Halford's on the 15th, sank her tee-shot, giving rise to more shouts.
"We believe this could make an interesting world record," club director Nigel Gibson said.
"Many holes in one are hit around the world, but three in a 10-minute period makes this unique."
The odds of three non-professionals doing this at the same course within 10 minutes exceed a billion to one.
That's about as likely as two people having the same fingerprints and a 1000 times less likely than someone getting struck by lightning 3 times in their life !
Sandhurst staff deny there is a conspiracy to put the club on the map.
"I suppose that one can only say it's a very freakish incident that will probably go down in Australian golfing history," club spokesman Ron Smith said.
He denied holes were wider or the course easier than others, saying it had been designed by British Open Champion Peter Thomson and was "quite hard".
The club is compiling statutory declarations by the golfers involved and witnesses to their feat, and having trophies made for the players.
(Excerpt) Read more at heraldsun.com.au ...
Whatever.............
There is nothing like hitting a hole in one... a golfers dream come true. I know it was for me.
QUICK!!!!!!
Run for your lives! The End is Near!
Me too, #10 Muni Lafayette, La. 1965, 8 iron, one bounce and in!
I'm signing up for lessons from their golf pro ASAP.
Get 18 in a row - one player. A perfect game in golf. Then I'll be impressed.
Closest I ever came was at Vieux Chene. I forget the whole, but it hit the pin and bounced back about 5 feet. My one and only birdie. Did I mention I'm a lousy golfer? ;^)
I forget the hole number too. ;^)
I've been in a three some where another player made a hole in one and I've made one myself. In neither case did I get to see the ball go into the hole. Bad sun angle in the first case and a multi-tiered green in the second.
In my case, I was playing so poorly, I had actually picked up on the three preceding holes.
Apparently, four aces were made at the 1989 US Open on the same hole on the same day, just one hour and 50-minutes apart.
Probability Games :
No.of golf courses in the World - 24,000 Accurate
No.of golf rounds per day globally - 2,400,000 Estimate
No.of holes per round - 18
Total holes of golf played per day - 43,200,000
Chances of getting a hole-in-one - 13,000 : 1
No. of aces in a day globally - 3,323
My basic mathematics study (not my greatest subject...) does not extend to advanced probability theory, but the chances of three holes-in-one at the same course on the same day must be astronomical.
Perhaps it is 13,000 cubed, i.e. 1 in 2,197,000,000,000
One in 3 Trillion !!!
Hole of golf played every year = 15,768,000,000
No. of years since a similar event = 15
Holes of golf played in last 15 years = 236,520,000,000
The last figure mentioned is still only 1/9th of the actual probability figure, so the event that took place here in Melbourne really is out-of-the-box so to speak.
Any expert mathematicians reading this post will probably be able to poke big holes through my calculations above. I am interested to know if anyone out there knows how to calculate accurately the true probabilty of the "Three Aces in One Day/Same Course" scenario.
Gee whiz, the golfing planets must be in alignment this month...I wonder what the Master of the Universe's Golf Handicap is ?
"The secret to good golf is a good lie." That's why I had to give it up: I didn't lie good enough.
A better story is when we took a friend out to play his first round of golf and he hit a hole in one -- the "right" way. A beautiful shot. He also had a birdy.
My mother and father both got theirs on the same hole.
My basic mathematics study (not my greatest subject...) does not extend to advanced probability theory, but the chances of three holes-in-one at the same course on the same day must be astronomical.
In the mid 1990's at the Junior Invitational a junior hit two aces in one round. The first came on the fourth hole -- 230 yards. The second was to a severely elevated green on the eighth hole -- about 165 yards. Five yards off the tee it begins a steep rise to the green. From the tee, you can't see the flag when it's on the back half of the green.
For a minute there, I thought you wrote..."The secret to good golf is a good pie."
Thus my confusion...The only good pies you get on a public golf course here in Australia are magpies. Although at this time of the year you wouldn't call them "Good". Late Winter/Early Spring is the start of their swooping season. Thus many golfers are used to ducking for cover from the wayward birds, not just from the wayward slices and hooks of other players. As for pies of an edible sort, the usual fare offered by the on-course cafes, the famous Australian "Four-n-Twenty Pie", is usually served luke warm on the outside and cold on the inside. Nothing worse than biting into a camouflaged cold pie on a winter's day when you are starving after a round of 18 holes. It's like drinking a glass of French champagne without the bubbles.
Anyway, sorry about this rambling diversion away from the subject. Next time I will read all of the posts properly.
evidence please :-)
A sign of the End Times, no doubt.
That's very interesting. Thank's for the information. Free Republic must have a few golfers in its ranks !
Where is an expert Mathematician when you need one ?
I wonder if the odds are the same for one person hitting two holes-in-one on the same day, as two people hitting one hole-in-one each on the same day ? I reckon the odds would be influenced by the skill level of the golfer.
Or it could be a sign of the "Start of Times". Do you know about Jewish prophecy and the idea of the messianic era ?
We probably shouldn't wander off the subject of this post, i.e. "The Never Truly Conquerable Game of Golf."
There is a time and a place for everything, even magpies...
Oh the rudeness...asking a golfer for proof of their hole in one! Oh the feigned indignation... LOL I guess I'm going to have to get a scanner for my newspaper clipping now!!
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