Hole in One at the Hawkestone Golf Club

Bond. Graham Bond. Ace golfer.

The Hawkestone Golf Club regular was the toast of the bar on Saturday evening after he sunk the first 'Hole in One' of his playing career during the Allied Pickfords Glad Beaman Pairs and Gracie Cup medal competitions.

The magic swing came on the 14th Hole, a Par 3 of around 109m, which is flat for the first 90m before dropping down 5m to a hidden green with just the top of the flag visible from the tee.

Bond, a self-confessed "basher" with a 20 handicap, was using a sand wedge club.

"I really didn't know it was in the hole when we couldn't see it on the green, where we expected it to be," he said.

His playing partner checked the hole and confirmed the ball was nestled there.
"That went into the sidepocket of the bag, carried on with a new ball."

Bond's ace relieved the disappointment of a few years ago when his drive on the 7th Hole went so straight despite the windy conditions that it struck the flag and dropped straight down – an inch from the cup.

Having started the game when he was 12, Bond has been back at Hawkestone for the last eight years, having played around four years before taking a break for a decade.

"Every Saturday now I'm looking for that elusive shot and I finally fluked one," he said.

"That's why I work the job I do so I have my Saturday's free. I love the camaraderie with a small country club.

"If I get another one, I'll be blessed, but we swing the club and hope, don't we?"

Bond made sure to have alternative means of transportation home on Saturday evening so protocol could be followed for an ace-getter, something that nearly carried on the next day for an Otaki golf day.

"I was shouted. They changed the rules about five years ago, where a lot of the membership thought it was a burden if you got a Hole in One to shout everybody," he said.

"The rule is you can ask anyone and they have to buy you a drink, but you ask the same person a second time that's your bad luck because then you have to get it."

It is believed to be the third recorded ace of 2019 in the greater Whanganui region after Castlecliff Golf Club's Ken Read and Tom Johns achieved the feat in January.