The Rich River Golf Club pennant player known as Rocket has just sunk another hole-in-one.
Another?
Unbelievably, it’s his third in barely 12 months.
And the fourth of his career.
No wonder none of his mates are game to step up to the tee when Rocket lines up on the nearest par three.
The odds of an amateur hitting three in a year are measured in the millions to one. The fourth one probably stretches that to the billions.
Rocket, however, is still laughing about it all — he can’t help himself.
“The first one was way back in 1992 at Narooma, NSW, in 1992, so it has been a while between drinks,” he grinned.
“That course was made famous by those old Paul Hogan adverts when he was convincing everyone to smoke, because it has this blowhole.
“The one there I didn’t see go in, so it was a bit of a shock to realise it was an ace.”
At Burleigh in Queensland, when he hit his second hole-in-one — and the first of the current treble – he still didn’t see it go in, but knew it had.
He said he played on to the green and no-one could see the ball — someone said there was something there, but everyone agreed it was a leaf that had been there before the drive.
“This was a bit of a boys’ trip, so it was a real buzz to do it there,” Rocket said.
Then he brought his magic irons back to his home course at RRGC and at the third on the east course on May 16 he dropped another one straight into the hole.
“One of the guys had a range finder and said he could only see one ball, and we knew that was my mate’s, so we were pretty certain again,” he said.
“Sure enough, when we got up there, mine was in the hole.”
And for those who simply could not believe it, he lined up on Thursday last week (still on the east course, this time at the 16th) and did it again.
Best of all, that one he did see go in.
“I hit it beautifully, and we started to watch it slowly roll down the slope on the green, and one of my mates said ‘that could go in’.
“And it did, it was incredibly exciting and there was a lot of shouting, high-fiving and yes, a little swearing, when we saw it disappear into the hole.
“I’m in a couple of WhatsApp groups and all my mates are calling me a greedy bastard and telling me I should share it around a bit.”
Rocket has been playing division 1 and 2 in pennant teams at his club and was in the winning preliminary final side, but headed off for holidays before the final, which RRGC also won.
Playing off +3.9 he can probably be expected to always be thereabouts, but three in a year and four in a career — and counting — is something even the pros would dream about.
However, not everyone is as impressed with Rocket as he and his golfing buddies are.
He got a much different message from partner Malee, who is not very sports focused: “You need to find more time to get things done around the house.”
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