Perfection in defeat

ONE THEN DONE: Hamish Harris and the 9-iron he struck for his career-first hole-in-one during a club championship match at Patutahi Golf Club. He lost on the next hole. Picture supplied

A matchplay cloud had a golden lining for Hamish Harris in the form of golf's perfect shot.

Harris now belongs to a club some of the district's most famous golfers have yet to join with a hole-in-one during club championships at his home Patutahi course.

The Rua Bioscience plant specialist experienced the pleasure of watching his 9-iron-struck tee shot find the hole on the 128-metre 15th hole at the 'Tahi.

It came during an intermediate club championship match against Pat Molloy, with Harris on the cusp of defeat.

“I was dormie in the match,” Harris said. “When it went in Pat looked at me and said, ‘Here we go'.”

Molloy needn't have worried. The match ended on the next hole.

But the enduring memory for Harris was not of defeat, rather the sight of his ball as it split a tree on the right of the hole and the bunker, landed on the front of the green, rolling between two other balls he estimated at being about a foot apart and dropping in the side of the cup.

“I said, ‘It's in,' but the boys reckoned, ‘Nah, it might have rolled out the back,' but I was sure it had gone in.”

The golfing ultimate came about five years after he took up the game through a friend.

And Harris was well aware that such an achievement was still being sought by much better-performed players.

“I was talking to Huks (Patutahi senior club champion and Poverty Bay-East Coast representative Hukanui Brown) and he said he and Wi Brown (Poverty Bay Open champion and PBEC rep) haven't had one.”

Harris, who plays off a 10-handicap at his home course, has gone close before.

He recalls teeing off Patutahi's famous 214-metre par-4 18th, which is dominated by a giant tree that blocks out the green unless a player is prepared to play an almost carve-like slice or heavy hook.

Harris decided to try to slice his tee shot over a maize paddock on the left-hand side and around the tree.

He got the intended cut and his ball ended up “a cellphone-length” away from the hole.

That sort of adventure has stoked the golfing fire but it's the people that he enjoys the most about the game.

Harris works in Ruatoria, lives in Tokomaru Bay and has a house at Patutahi.

He's contemplating joining Te Puia Springs as well but at the moment is happy to travel from Toko to the 'Tahi for his golfing fix.

“They're a fantastic bunch of guys. That's why I make the effort to go out there and play with the boys on Sundays.”