Ace out of sight

ace ticked off the list: Rookie golfer Mike Christophers took little time to knock hole-in-one off his golfing “to do” list. He aced the fifth at Gisborne Park last weekend. Picture by Liam Clayton

JUST 20 weeks after taking up the game seriously, Mike Christophers has achieved something golfers playing for 20 years and beyond are still striving for . . . a hole-in-one.

Christophers aced the 140-metre fifth hole at Electrinet Park last Saturday.

“It was a little bit underwhelming,” he said of his 7-iron-struck shot.

“We didn’t actually see it go in.”

The hole was cut behind the right-hand bunker so all that was visible to his playing group was the upper part of the flagstick.

“We saw it (the ball) disappear over the bunker but no one knew where it went from there.”

Christophers was the first to tee off in his group of five so it was a matter of having to “wait and see” to find out how close his ball was.

They walked up to the green and there was no sign of the ball.

“Adrian (Wyrill) said, ‘It’s definitely in the hole’,” said Christophers, who decided to “tick off all the boxes” before looking in the hole.

He looked over the back of the green and even in the non-flagsticked other hole, which was cut nearby.

He saved the best look to last “and there it was, sitting in the hole”.

His reaction was low-key as by that time he had exhausted the other possibilities (bar a magpie having stolen it) and knew his ball must be in the hole.

“I was stoked but I think the boys were buzzing more than I was.”

The boys he was referring to were Wyrill, Mike’s brother Craig, Deevon Gray and Shane Kopa, who works with Christophers at his company Streetwise Spouting.

“It was Shane’s first game in a couple of years,” Mike Christophers said.

By the time they finished the round — Christophers shot 87-18-69 — it was late and “everyone had to bail”, so there was no 19th-hole celebratory shout.

“I had to call on another mate and popped around there for a few beers.”

Christophers was among a group, including his brother, who got into golf properly around Easter this year.

“I’d probably played 10 rounds in the past 10 years and then Craig said he wasn’t playing footy this season, and I’d been looking for someone to play golf with, so it was perfect timing.”

The Christophers brothers, Wyrill and Craig’s fellow Lytton High teacher Matt Henwood joined as fulltime members at the Park.

They soon made their mark.

Mike and Wyrill top-qualified for one of the club’s most popular trophies — the Te Kanawa Cup men’s pairs — while Craig and Henwood earned the No.3 seeding.

Craig and Henwood went on to win the Te Kanawa Cup.

Mike and Wyrill won the Fletcher Cup subsidiary after being knocked out in the first matchplay round of the Te Kanawa.

All four are involved in the club championships.

Craig top-qualified in the junior division, Henwood is No.2 seed and Mike, No.6.

Wyrill is already through to the quarterfinals of the intermediate division.

Mike Christophers and Henwood are on a semifinal collision course, although Mike has to get past Pete Tamatea and third seed Dave Rameka along the way.

“If all goes well, I’ll get to play Craig in the final. That would be something.”