The smile was wide on the face of Ron Pollock's playing partner as he watched him searching with his 6-iron at the back of the ninth hole of the Castlecliff Golf Club on Saturday.
Because for those couple of moments he knew what was about to shock the 83-year-old -he wouldn't find his ball in the rough because it was sitting underneath the flag.
"I was a little bit embarrassed, I could have sworn it had gone through," said Pollock yesterday about his first hole-in-one. "I was a bit surprised, it floored me a bit. I couldn't believe my eyes.
The ninth hole at Castlecliff is 128m, with the green behind a dip and can be very difficult for the ball to stay on when conditions are windy.
Pollock went home to text his sons and when he told them something good happened at Castlecliff, the Manawatu-based son who plays the game guessed it was an ace, while his non-golfing sibling had no clue. A casual golfer in his younger days while he still played rugby, Pollock became a more serious club player around 25 years ago, which means there have been plenty of tee-offs where he had to hit the ball at least once more. "I thought I'd never get one, actually," he said. "I had one before in the days they had two holes in one green and it was the wrong hole - the flag was in the other. This is the first genuine one."
It was the second hole-in-one in the region within a month as Feilding's Andy Baker got one at the Hawkestone club on August 30. Golf insurance company US Hole In One calculates the odds of an average player making an ace at 12,500 to 1.
