Golf: Tauranga woman Shania Cooke scores second hole-in-one

It was almost deja vu for Tauranga golfer Shania Cooke, who scored her second hole-in-one on the same course, on the same hole, with the same club.

The 24-year-old was playing in the men’s opening day competition when she scored a hole-in-one on the fourth hole at Tauranga Golf Club on Saturday.

It was the second hole-in-one for Cooke, who scored her first just 128 days earlier while playing in the Carrus Open Pro Am in September last year.

“I have been playing for about 16 years, and they are the only hole-in-ones I have had, and they were within four months of each other,” Cooke said.

“It is so rare. Getting one is awesome, but to get two on the same course, same hole, same club is even better.”

The odds of the average golfer getting a hole-in-one are about 12,500 to one. Based on those odds, the likelihood of a female golfer scoring two holes-in-one 128 days apart is 144 million to one.

Tauranga golfer Shania Cooke scored her second hole-in-one on the same course, on the same hole, with the same club.

“As a golfer, it is awesome to be able to say I have had two. I hit it well and I was stoked with the shots, but it really is just so lucky,” Cooke said.

“Both times, the boys I was playing with were more excited than I was.”

Cooke, who is The Clubroom Tauranga’s golf operations manager, said she had hit the same shot from the men’s blue tees with the same 7-iron she used when she got her first hole-in-one.

The only difference was where the ball landed on the green before rolling into the hole, she said.

“I absolutely flushed it and thought, s*** it’s too big,” she said.

“I could see it the whole way. Then it started coming down and just missed the ball that was already on the green by an inch.

The Tauranga Golf Club. Photo / Jimmy Joe

“I thought, ‘if that ball stops me from either a tap-in-two or a hole-in-one, I’m going to be so annoyed’,” she said with a laugh.

But the ball went straight into the hole.

“The first thing I said was, ‘Oh my God’. One of the men I was playing with lifted me up and spun me around then we all hugged it out.

“My playing partner gave me about a million high-fives because that was the first hole-in-one he had ever seen in real life.”

Earlier in the morning, Cooke said she had joked with one of the men, saying she was going to get a hole-in-one to beat his closest-ever shot on the fourth hole.

“Then we got on to the tee and I made the exact same joke with the boys.

“They said all I had to do was just get a hole-in-one and I said, ‘easy’.”

Her playing partner teed off first and his ball landed on the green.

“He said, ‘Right Shaz, time for your hole-in-one’. And I got it.”

Tauranga Golf Club manager Michelle Towersey said Cooke was the first woman to score a hole-in-one this year. There was only one other female golfer who scored a hole-in-one in the last 12 months, she said.

“To get a hole-in-one is rare, but to get two in your golfing career in such a short time frame is almost unheard of.

“Especially for a female golfer to score a hole-in-one while playing in a men’s competition off the men’s tees, [it] just adds another dimension.

“The club and its members are so happy for Shania.”

Zoe Hunter is a freelance journalist based in Tauranga.