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Lightcliffe Golf Club's junior captain Marcus Peel has registered that rarest of golfing achievements - a hole in one on a par four.
The 15-year-old's albatross or double eagle came when he partnered his father Mike in a greensome competition alongside club stalwarts Chris Cox and Robert Charnock.
Lightcliffe's nine-hole course counts a 276-yard hole as its 4th and 13th - a dog-leg over a stream and around high-growing dense woodland.
Only the foolhardy or the truly talented attempt the shorter route from tee to green directly over the high trees and even then might usually expect to lose their ball in the undergrowth.
North Halifax Grammar School pupil Marcus, who took up golf four years ago, had tried the shot for about a year but never found the green before. Even on this occasion he heard the ball hit trees.
All four players advanced towards the blind hole, having played their approach shots, and spent five minutes searching for Marcus's tee shot in the undergrowth and around the nearby tractor-sheds, before noticing the top of the ball trapped between the flag and rim of the hole!
"It was quite a big fluke," admitted Marcus.
"Last summer I played the hole as a dog-leg but over the winter I have grown a bit and got stronger.
"As it was a team competition and you could play the best drive with the next shot, me and my dad both decided we would go for it.
"He also hit it over the trees but we couldn't find his ball."
The odds of scoring an albatross from a tee shot has been estimated to be six million-to-one.
Lightcliffe Golf Club celebrated its centenary recently and Marcus is believed to be only the second player to have achieved this feat in the club's history.
The first was 17-year-old Matthew Parker, a five-handicapper who attends Hipperholme Grammar School. He did it on the same hole playing in last year's Watkinson Trophy 36-hole competition.
The success of these teenagers is seen as a demonstration of the strength of the club's youth policy under the guidance of professional Ron Tickle and Nigel Holden, a member who takes responsibility for club juniors.
Marcus said there had been looks of amazement in the clubhouse when the news was broken on the players' return.
He said: "I think they only believed me because it had also happened the previous year."
Marcus made several attempts at trying to replicate his ace during the Easter holidays. "I did manage to hit the green a couple of times but I don't think I'll ever get another hole in one there," he said.
The full article contains 460 words and appears in Evening Courier newspaper.
Source: Evening Courier
Location: Halifax |
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