Despite spending a lot of time playing golf recently, Wright only started five years ago after an injury meant he could no longer play squash.
While some may take injuries as an excuse to lie on the couch and watch TV, Wright instead headed to Hawke’s Bay Golf Club in Bridge Pā to pick up the sport.
Wright calls his golf club “very, very, very friendly”.
“If I see people I haven’t seen before, I race over on my bike, introduce myself, as do other members, and you don’t find that with a lot of clubs,” he said.
“As a result, we’ve got maybe a few more hooligans than other clubs, but I’d much rather it be that friendly way.”
On July 3, Wright found himself entered into a Thursday competition at the club in a southerly wind with misty rain.
Soon, Wright’s group of four was at the club’s 13th hole, a par three with a distance of 121m.
Wright stood at the tee in the wind and rain and hit the ball with his nine iron.
“I naturally hit a baby fade round to the right, and when you hit a good one, you just go, wow, that’s got a nice high ball flight, that’ll stop like you want it,” he said.
The ball landed on the green and rolled out of sight.
Wright thought the ball may have rolled off the back of the green, but believed he was still in a good position for a birdie.
But as he quietly made his way to the green, he saw it sitting in the hole.
Wright’s group were ecstatic with his achievement, which helped him win that day’s competition.
“People are amazing,” he said.
Wrighht credited his first hole-in-one to his golf coach Turtle.
But being a constant golfer, Wright carried on playing regularly and soon found himself in a similar position only six weeks later, in another midweek competition on August 13.
It was a sunny winter’s day and Wright had found himself “utterly humiliated” on the 12th hole of Hawke’s Bay Golf Club, so much so he considered running over his playing partner Jamie Wilson with his e-bike in the carpark after a few well-crafted sledges were thrown his way.
Fortunately, Wright knew that with his history on the 13th, he had a good shot at working his total down.
Again with his nine iron at the tee, Wright hit another fade around to the right.
This time, Wright heard the ball hit the pin.
“I just said ‘thank you, Lord’ – he took mercy on me from all those buggers,” he said with a laugh.
“I just told Jamie, can you go and have a look in that hole for me, mate?”
After two months of remarkable achievements, Wright is now planning (somewhat jokingly) to hit a hole-in-one once every fortnight.
He encourages anyone and everyone to come and give golf a go, especially at Hawke’s Bay Golf Club.
Jack Riddell is a multimedia journalist with Hawke’s Bay Today and has worked in radio and media in Auckland, London, Berlin, and Napier.
