Freak shot

Carving his name into the sport’s history was probably the furthest thing from Christie’s mind last week as he strode to the 18th tee of Rich River’s east course.

He was already having a hot round in a regular club tournament and would finish the day at four below on the par 72 course.

But that’s already forgotten — for the rest of his life, and for his three playing partners, April 4, 2019, will be forever etched into their memories as the day of the albatross.

Christie launched a tracer off the tee but judging the distance to the green with his second shot and getting close for a lay-up and possible birdie saw the talented teen reach for his two iron.

And then he nailed it.

‘‘It actually went off to the left,’’ he said.

‘‘It was no chance of going in, but I thought it was a beautiful shot.’’

‘‘It bounced off to the right when it landed, so I thought it was somewhere off the back of the green.’’

When Christie got to the green, there was no ball to be found.

Playing partners Brian Sharp, Bill Ramsay and Noel Bailey joined the young golfer in searching, but no one was able to find the ball.

‘‘We had a look around, it wasn’t on the edge of the water or in one of the bunkers, we had no idea where it had gone.’’

Finally, the game continued, with Bailey lining up to take his putt.

‘‘He looked in the hole after his putt and there it was.’’

Christie, already a scratch golfer, only had an understatement to describe the moment.

‘‘It’s easily the best hole I’ve ever played,’’ he said.

‘‘You never expect to be able to produce two shots like that in a game so I was pretty happy with the result.’’

An albatross is so rare there is an international registry of players who have achieved the feat called the Double Eagle Club, which has attempted to record every albatross since it was founded in 1997.

Christie can now claim to having done something few golfers ever will.