Gisborne Park golfer Rod Moore hits a hole-in-one

Career-first ace . . . and very nearly a second: Rod Moore re-enacts pulling the ball out of the hole on Gisborne Park's 14th green after his first hole-in-one. The other ball is how far away he finished with his tee shot on the par-3 fifth hole earlier in the round. The odds of making two aces in the one round are estimated at 67 million to one. Picture by Paul Rickard

GOLF

GISBORNE golfer Rod Moore has come within an inch of defying 67-million-to-one odds.

The 40-year-old not only achieved a career-first hole-in-one during a round on his home Gisborne Park course last month, he was just one turn of his ball away from making it two in the same round.

Moore, a long-time manager at JNL, aced the 112-metre par-3 14th hole — going from “gutted-as” to “pretty buzzy”.

Nine holes earlier, Moore was wondering what he had to do to achieve the perfect shot.

On the 140m fifth, Moore hit an 8-iron to a pin located behind the bunker so he couldn’t see from the tee where his ball finished.

It ended up an inch from the hole.

“It was probably one turn away from going in,” Moore said.

“I was gutted-as but just thought to myself ‘keep going, keep going’. I was playing pretty well and kept it together.”

There was a little wind when he got to the 14th tee so he decided to go with the pitching wedge.

“It looked good as soon as it left the club, then boom! I was stoked.”

His playing partners — Anthony Pahina, Geoff Hill and Steve Phillips — “jumped up and down and did the woo-hoo thing . . . it was pretty buzzy”.

“Then I thought, heck, I have to shout the bar (a hole-in-one tradition in New Zealand).”

Moore wondered what the chances were of having two aces in the one round. He later learned of cases of a player having three.

The general odds for a decent golfer to achieve a hole-in-one are about 5000 to one. To have two aces in the one round is estimated to be about 67 million to one. To have three is believed to be somewhere in the billions.

Moore returned to golf in January 2017 after a 10-year absence. He had to play off his old handicap — five — and has gradually drifted out to as high as 13.

He is currently on 11 but was on 13 when he had his ace, and he went on to card 75, his best round since his return to the game.

Armed with a new set of clubs, he feels he has turned a corner and is showing shades of his old form.

Just a week after Moore’s ace, Liam Wallace, who has played less than 10 full rounds in his life, had a hole-in-one on the 155m second hole at Gisborne Park.

Moore was on the course at the time and when he learned of rookie Wallace’s feat, he smiled.

“When it’s your day, it’s your day.”

Oh, and yes, Moore did shout.