Aces (by kind permission of Golf Quarterly)
The hole-in-one remains the ultimate achievement for every golfer. It is a sublime moment of perfection, a second in time when you have achieved something that nobody can better. You are standing toe to toe with the greats. Jack Nicklaus or Tiger Woods or Bobby Jones or Ben Hogan can do no more with a golf ball than hole out from the tee.
I was mulling over the phenomenon of holes-in-one at the start of the year when I had the good fortune to achieve one myself (the seventh at Muirfield, a hybrid punched into a left-to-right wind since you ask). I felt that it surely should be an omen of something, but the way this year has turned out, I do not think it can have been a very good omen! Nevertheless it was a very thrilling event at the time. My partner and I duly repaired to the clubhouse – but, it being a Monday, the members of the bridge club had taken residence for the afternoon and sternly hushed our excited arrival, which probably saved me an expensive bar bill!
Of course the great charm of the hole-in-one is that it is so rare. Golfing insurance policies often have a hole-in-one clause as a bonus, and actuaries have calculated the odds of the average golfer achieving a hole-in-one as he stands on the tee at 12,500-1. Even for a professional the odds are still estimated at 2,500-1. But does this mean that the greatest is level with the random member of the random club? Jack Nicklaus said to have had three competitive holes in one on the PGA Tour, while Robert Allenby has had ten. Jeff Maggert can claim to have the only hole-in-one on a par four hole on the tour, but would anyone suggest that Allenby or Maggert are in any way the equals of Jack Nicklaus?
I had a further discussion with a highly experienced group of low handicappers who operate on Mondays under the title of the ‘Rusticators’ and invite me along as an occasional reserve. We have been whiling away lockdown with a weekly virtual cup of coffee to discuss the rounds we had not been able to have. Our last conversation drifted onto the eclectic totals of our best scores on each hole round the course. While most of us had never managed to achieve a birdie on a couple of the very long par fours, and we did not have eagles to compensate, resulting in average scores of around 55, my hole-in-one gave me a one-shot advantage over several of the others. But the best player was a good seven or eight shots lower than the rest of us, as he had managed holes-in-one at all the par threes and eagles at the par fives. So holes-in-one do make a difference, and by and large the best players do get more of them than those who are less capable
Although holes-in-one by their nature are rare, the odds of one actually happening in any given tournament with four rounds and 144 professionals attacking the par threes are actually relatively low. In a famous betting coup in 1991, some punters cleaned out the bookmakers by realising the real odds should be little more than even money in a top tournament that somebody would have a hole-in-one over the four days. However holes-in-one that have made a difference to the result of the tournament are very rare indeed. It seems that most are achieved when the perpetrator is far out of contention.
One of the most exuberant moments when Tiger Woods burst onto the professional scene in 1997 came at the Phoenix Open. He aced the signature ‘stadium’ par 3 16thto thunderous cheers. The sky rained cascades of beer as cups were hurled into the air by the thousands of boisterous patrons lining the hole. Yet he only finished 18th in the tournament.
Older readers will remember when the name of the 73 year old Gene Sarazen made a brief and improbable appearance on the leaderboard of the 1973 Open at Troon after he holed out in the first round with a five iron punched into the wind at the iconic Postage Stamp hole. Indeed he gilded the legend by holing out the next day from the deepest of the bunkers round that hole. But while it was the most memorable moment in that Open, it could hardly be said to be critical to the outcome of the tournament.
Very different were events way back in the mists of time at the dawn of tournament golf. Young Tom Morris began to assume mythical status when he had a hole-in-one at Prestwick in the 1869 Open. This was the first time the feat had been achieved in the Open and his ace at the 166 yard eighth (the ‘Station’ hole) did indeed lay the foundations for his second win in the championship at the age of 18. Unfortunately, history does not record the club he used.
A last round hole-in-one helped David Toms to win the PGA championship in 2004 but there was an even more dramatic denouement to a major in 1954 when the Masters was set alight by the amateur Billy Joe Patton. He entered the final round five shots back from the great Ben Hogan, but a hole-in-one at the sixth electrified the galleries and ignited a spectacular charge up the leaderboard by the lumber salesman. Patton found himself tied for the lead with six holes to play. In the end he played the par fives too aggressively and finished a shot back from Hogan and Snead. The latter two played off for the title, but as far as most spectators were concerned, it was Billie Joe who was the hero of that year’s Masters.
British golf spent a long time in the doldrums after the Second World War. Opens were continually seeing the claret jug being swept off to Australia or South Africa by Peter Thompson or Bobby Locke, even before Arnold Palmer and Jack Nicklaus took over. But suddenly in the 1960s a charismatic figure exploded onto the scene in the shape of the young and handsome Tony Jacklin. He announced his arrival in the most stunning way with the first televised hole-in-one in 1967 at Royal St George’s when he won the Dunlop Masters. His ace at the 16th was absolutely critical to his triumph in the tournament.
The most remarkable conclusion to a US tour event was surely at the 2010 Justin Timberlake Shriners Hospital Open. Spare a thought for Martin Laird and the same Jeff Maggert mentioned earlier who were at the fourth hole of a sudden death play-off for the title. As they stood waiting on the tee, Jonathan Byrd who was first to hit, holed out with a six iron to win the tournament there and then. Few courses conclude with a par 3 so it is perhaps not surprising that this appears to be a unique finish to professional stroke play event.
Reverting to match play, the first hole in one in a Ryder Cup was not until 1973. Nick Faldo had a hole-in-one against Paul Azinger in 1993, but lost the match and indeed Europe lost as well. The closest to a crucial hole-in-one came in 2006 at the K Club when Paul Casey holed the last shot struck in his foursomes match, but his pair was already well ahead and it simply closed out a comfortable victory.
But perhaps we overrate holes in one. Maybe all the excitement and all the rounds in the bar do not really reflect anything other than a random spin of Fortune’s wheel and should be treated accordingly. Certainly the great Ben Hogan, for many the finest striker of a golf ball who ever lived, appeared to think so. At the 1947 Masters the crowd erupted when his playing partner Claude Harmon recorded the first ever ace at the 12th hole. Ben followed with a beautifully struck iron shot and holed out for a birdie. As they left the green, the great man simply said “You know, Claude, I can’t remember the last time I made a two there. What did you have?”